African ministers responsible for communications and technology have been told that the continent has written enough digital strategies and now needs the money and the will to carry them out, including investment in African-built artificial intelligence (AI).

The call came at the ministerial session of the African Union's Specialised Technical Committee on Communication and ICT, which opened in Libreville, Gabon, on Thursday 29 October after two days of talks by experts, the African Union said in a statement on Friday. Kenya's Citizen Digital also reported the meeting.

"Africa does not suffer from a shortage of digital strategies... What we require now is sustained financing, stronger institutions and the courage and focus to implement our commitments," said Lerato Mataboge, the African Union Commission's Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, according to the AU statement.

What the AU wants

According to the AU, Mataboge set out six priority areas for the committee: policies and infrastructure, trusted digital systems that work together across borders, artificial intelligence, skills and innovation, communications, and Africa's role in global digital rules.

She called for faster investment in cross-border fibre networks, regional data centres, internet exchange points, cloud infrastructure and last-mile connections, and for dedicated funding for African AI, research and digital skills, the AU said. She also urged progress towards a single African digital market under the African Continental Free Trade Area's digital trade protocol.

"Africa must not remain a consumer of the global digital revolution. We must help shape its rules, drive its innovation and capture its opportunities," Mataboge said, as quoted by Citizen Digital.

Ghana's communications minister, Samuel Nartey George, took over as chair of the committee from Lesotho. The AU said he told the meeting the committee must be judged on results rather than declarations, and listed AI built "for Africa, by Africans" among urgent priorities. He said Africa should negotiate as one market of nearly 1.5 billion people rather than 55 separate ones.

Ministers are also preparing a common African position for the International Telecommunication Union's 2026 Plenipotentiary Conference in Doha, Qatar, and discussing the Algiers Declaration on fair, safe and responsible digital platforms, according to both the AU and Citizen Digital.

Why it matters for Zimbabwe

The AU's message lands as Zimbabwe argues over its own technology budget. At the 2027 pre-budget seminar in Bulawayo this week, ICT Minister Tatenda Mavetera said her ministry had been allocated ZWG1.03 billion against a bid of ZWG12.72 billion, 263Chat reported.

"We are therefore entering a fourth consecutive budget year in which less than one tenth of the stated requirement is funded," Mavetera said, according to 263Chat. She described ICT as "general-purpose infrastructure for the whole economy not a single ministry's line item".

Mavetera told the seminar that, despite the shortfall, her ministry connected 460 health institutions under its Smart Health programme this year, 263Chat reported. The AU's message, and Mavetera's own figures, point the same way: digital plans move only as fast as the money behind them, and for Zimbabweans at home and in the diaspora that shapes how quickly cheaper connections and online public services arrive.

What we don't know yet

Which decisions ministers will adopt when the Libreville session closes, including the wording of the planned Libreville Declaration.

Whether any new money is attached to the AU's call, or which partners would provide it.

Zimbabwe's role at the meeting. We could not confirm who represented Zimbabwe.

Sources: African Union press release, 30 Oct 2026: https://au.int/en/pressreleases/20261030/digital-strategies-delivery-au-ministers-call-increased-investment · Citizen Digital (Kenya), 30 Oct 2026: https://citizen.digital/article/african-union-targets-digital-independence-with-native-ai-initiative-n393015 · 263Chat, 30 Oct 2026 (Zimbabwe context): https://www.263chat.com/funding-gaps-could-undermine-digital-transformation-mavetera/

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