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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →No single authority decides whether every AI system is safe across Africa. The African Union (AU) sets shared continental direction through its 2024 Continental AI Strategy, while national governments are called on to develop their own policies, laws and regulations. A continent-wide governance mechanism has been advocated, but the AU documents available through April 2026 do not establish it as an operating safety regulator or certification body.
Who has authority over AI safety in Africa?
AI governance is being shaped at several levels, with different roles and degrees of authority. The AU strategy is an adopted policy framework; national regulation is for Member States to develop; and a proposed continental mechanism remains distinct from either.
| Level | Role in AI governance | Status in the AU record |
|---|---|---|
| African Union institutions | Set shared priorities, coordinate continental policy and address issues such as peace and security. | The Continental AI Strategy was endorsed in 2024. Further governance work was still under way in 2026. |
| National governments | Develop country-level strategies, laws, policies and regulations, taking national conditions into account. | The AU called on Member States to do this in 2025. The cited documents do not show that every country has enacted equivalent rules. |
| Regional and continental cooperation | Coordinate across borders and pursue common approaches to shared risks and priorities. | The AU has advocated establishing a Continental AI Governance Mechanism; the cited record does not show a fully operational mechanism. |
| Public and private stakeholders | Contribute perspectives and expertise through consultation and dialogue. | Consultations and multistakeholder commitments are documented, but not equal influence or representation of every affected community. |
What the AU strategy does—and does not do
The AU Commission developed the Continental AI Strategy through a participatory process that included open online consultations on AI’s opportunities, risks, foundational capabilities and regional coordination. A working group of Member States and Pan-African organizations supported the continental approach.
African ICT and Communications Ministers endorsed the strategy in June 2024, and the AU Executive Council endorsed it at its 45th Ordinary Session in July 2024. The strategy sets a policy direction for using AI to support African development while encouraging ethical use and minimizing risks. It is not, by itself, a law that gives one AU office power to approve or prohibit AI systems throughout the continent.
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In May 2025, an AU high-level policy dialogue called on Member States to develop national strategies, policies, laws and regulations aligned with the continental strategy and adapted to their own conditions. It also called for regional and continental cooperation. That is a direction for national rulemaking, not evidence that all countries already have the same rules or enforcement capacity.
What “safe AI” means in this policy framework
The AU’s framing goes beyond testing a model for technical failures. The 2025 dialogue calls for safety, security, accountability and transparency across AI design, development, deployment and use. It also points to recurring risk assessments, adaptable regulation, explainability, fairness, and safeguards for privacy and personal data.
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Those measures sit alongside human rights, democratic values, inclusion, diversity and the rule of law. In the 2024 strategy, governance is also tied to who benefits from AI and who bears its harms: the goal is to enable responsible ecosystems, distribute benefits more equally, mitigate risks and make AI development and use transparent and accountable to people.
This is a broad policy framework, not a single technical checklist that applies identically in every country. The strategy says governance should reflect differing levels of AI adoption and use across African ecosystems, as well as relevant regional and global policy practice.
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Governments and AU institutions have formal roles in setting policy, but the AU process also recognizes that responsible governance requires input beyond government. The strategy consultation included public participation, and the 2025 dialogue involved civil society, business, researchers and public stakeholders.
That establishes routes for participation and a stated commitment to inclusive governance; it does not establish that all groups have equal influence, or that every community affected by AI is represented. Whether participation shapes concrete rules will depend in part on how national governments and future continental processes put those commitments into practice.
African participation also matters beyond the continent. AI systems and standards cross borders, and the 2025 dialogue called for more representative global AI governance and coordinated African participation in international discussions. The aim is not only to manage local risks, but also to have African priorities represented when wider rules and standards are discussed.
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As of the AU Peace and Security Council communiqué dated 16 April 2026, continental governance work was still developing. The Council welcomed AU Commission efforts through an AI Advisory Group on Governance, Peace and Security and requested expedited completion of a comprehensive study and a Common African Position for its consideration. That indicates ongoing work, not a completed continent-wide safety regime.
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The AU record therefore does not establish one body with exclusive authority to declare every AI system safe throughout Africa. It also does not provide a country-by-country account of national laws or their implementation. Africa’s AI governance is a shared project with distinct national jurisdictions: continental policy can coordinate and set ambitions, while national rules and any future continental mechanism still have to be developed and put into effect.
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