Itai Ndongwe
VIC FALLS – The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) has called on Africa to keep pace with the current wave of Artificial Intelligence so as to secure its place in shaping the future of digital technology.
Speaking at the ITU Regional Development Forum for Africa 2026 and the African Preparatory Meeting for PP-26, POTRAZ said Africa must move beyond being a consumer of AI and take an active role in shaping its direction, governance and ethics.
“If Africa does not actively participate in shaping Artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies, then the future may be designed without African values, African cultures, African spirituality, African languages, and African perspectives,” the authority said. “Technology is never neutral. Every technology carries the values, assumptions, philosophies, and cultural perspectives of those who create it,” Potraz Director General Dr Gift Machengete said.
POTRAZ argued that the goal is not to halt innovation but to influence it so that it preserves humanity, respects cultural diversity, and reflects African understandings of community, identity, family and coexistence. For that to happen, the authority said, AI systems must be trained to understand African realities and languages including Kiswahili, isiZulu, Shona, Yoruba, Hausa, Amharic and Arabic.
“A continent whose languages and values are absent from AI risks becoming invisible in the future knowledge economy,” Dr Machengete warned.
The remarks come as countries increasingly compete to set the rules, ethics and governance frameworks of the intelligent age. POTRAZ said Africa must converge as a continent to ensure its voice is heard clearly and collectively within the global digital ecosystem.
It framed the challenge as one of digital sovereignty, cautioning against a future where Africa remains dependent on technologies designed elsewhere while others determine the terms. Connectivity, the authority said, should be leveraged for empowerment, industrialisation and cultural preservation.
“Every fibre network we deploy, every tower we erect, every rural school we connect, and every young African we equip with digital skills must contribute toward building an Africa that creates, an Africa that innovates, an Africa that influences, and an Africa that leads,” he added
POTRAZ added that Africa’s role as the cradle of humanity carries a responsibility to help defend human dignity in the age of AI.
