🇳🇬 English, 22 October 2026, digital sovereignty
Africa Loses Millions Annually to Foreign Cloud Dependencies, Says Luminate CEO
Nigeria reportedly bleeds millions of dollars annually due to its reliance on cloud infrastructure controlled by foreign big tech firms.
Delivering the keynote address at the Build 2026 Conference in Abuja, Luminate CEO Melanie Hui warned that Africa risks being locked into a subordinate role in the global artificial intelligence economy unless the continent secures genuine ownership of the infrastructure powering the technology.
Hui noted that key foundation layers were already in place for India’s Ministry of Agriculture to leverage AI, but Africa lacks such infrastructure, making it vulnerable to exploitation.
She emphasized that a country does not own its digital future when a data centre merely sits within its borders, but rather who controls it, who can afford to use it, and where the resulting economic value flows.