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AI, Competition, Trade and Development in Africa: Regulatory and Policy Perspectives

MIND Seminar with Professor Jonathan Klaaren and Professor Franziska Sucker

This introductory lecture provides an overview of how competition law and international trade law shape the development, deployment, and governance of artificial intelligence (AI) in Africa. Drawing on perspectives from both fields, it introduces participants to key legal, policy, and economic questions relating to AI, digital markets, and industrial development. The lecture introduces foundational concepts from competition law and policy, including cartels, abuse of dominance, and merger control, and discusses their relevance to increasingly concentrated AI ecosystems. It also considers the international trade dimensions of AI, with particular attention to the AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol and its provisions on cross-border data transfers, digital infrastructure, source code and algorithm governance, emerging and advanced technologies, and technical standards.

A central theme of the lecture is that AI should be understood not merely as a technological application, but as an ecosystem comprising five interconnected layers: hardware, cloud infrastructure, data, foundation models, and applications. This framework helps illuminate the distribution of economic power across AI value chains and the regulatory choices confronting African policymakers.

The lecture further draws on emerging empirical evidence regarding AI adoption across the African public and private sectors, highlighting both opportunities for industrial development and challenges relating to market concentration, technological dependence, digital sovereignty, and participation in the digital economy. Adapted from seminars presented as part of a recent Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Plus course on the economics of AI across Africa, the lecture provides participants with a foundational framework for understanding the intersection of AI, regulation, trade, competition, and development on the continent.

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