Atta-ched

I'll say it again, African tech needs a more founder-driven narrative around AI. We cannot rely on what's being produced right now. They are simply writing another ill-informed, top-down chapter of "abundance via innovation." Let me show you how almost every AI in Africa uplift figure our ecosystem relies on mostly comes from a 2017 report by PwC. 1/ In 2017, PwC published a report called "Sizing the Prize" where they estimated a $15.7T global AI uplift by 2030. In that report they also estimate $1.2T of that uplift to Africa, Oceana, and other less developed Asian Markets. It's not an Africa only estimate. 2/ UNESCA cites PwC's report in a 2021 speech. The UNDP cites the $1.2T PwC Africa number in a 2024 report. It then gets worse. 3/ Also in 2024, AI4D (through Genesis Analytics) produces their own report estimating a cumulative $2.9T uplift for Africa which is based on the same PwC report's global AI uplift number, cross-checked with McKinsey. 4/ GSMA then cites the $2.9T number in their own report, which then Google cites on their Africa blog, adding legitimacy. 5/ The African Development Bank (through Bazara Tech) publishes their own report in 2025 which estimates a $1T uplift for Africa using the same PwC report as its baseline for global AI uplift, cross-checked with McKinsey again. 6/ This month, The African Development Bank and UNDP launches the AI 10 Billion Initiative which aims to mobilize $10 billion in funding to "unlock $1T increase in Africa's GDP." So in summary: 4 different research reports using the same top-down methods, a $10 billion initiative, global institutions, and it all comes down to a 9 year old PwC report published a full 5 years before ChatGPT was even released.