Minister Mavetera Appointed To The Africa AI Council

The Minister of ICT, Postal and Courier Services, Hon. Tatenda Mavetera has been appointed to the newly established Africa Artificial Intelligence (AI) Council. This marks a big recognition of Zimbabwe to drive the continent’s artificial intelligence agenda.

The 15-member Council constituted by the Smart Africa board, led by H.E. Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda and Chairperson of the board, encompasses exceptional leaders selected by Smart Africa, the African Union Commission (AUC), and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The final composition of the Africa AI Council reflects an extraordinarily high bar for leadership, with only 15 members selected from a massive pool of over 400 applicants. This selective process, drawing from 57 nationalities, signals that the appointees are not merely representatives but the continent’s best-of-the-best in digital policy and innovation.

For Zimbabwe’s Minister Tatenda Mavetera, securing a seat among this group of 15 highlights her standing as a top-tier strategist on the global stage. This lean, high-impact council is designed to bypass traditional bureaucracy, tasking a small circle of visionaries with the massive responsibility of architecting a sovereign, AI-driven future for over 1.4 billion people.

Minister Mavetera’s inclusion among the 7 ministers places Zimbabwe at the center of continental decision-making across six critical thematic areas, which are infrastructure, data, market, talent, investment, and governance.

The Council’s mandate is to provide actionable recommendations that ensure AI is responsibly deployed and benefits all Africans. Speaking on the appointment, Lacina Koné, Director General of Smart Africa, emphasized that these leaders will ensure Africa becomes a creator, not merely a consumer of technology.

“Our Board mandated us to ensure that Africa leads not follows in the global AI transformation,” said Lacina Koné, Director General and CEO of Smart Africa. “With the establishment of the Africa AI Council, we take a decisive step toward shaping an AI-driven future rooted in African values, responsive to African challenges, and designed to unlock African potential. These 15 exceptional leaders bring the expertise, vision, and commitment needed to ensure that Africa becomes a creator, not merely a consumer, of AI technologies.”

For Zimbabwe, this appointment validates the Smart Zimbabwe 2030 roadmap championed by Minister Mavetera. Her leadership has already been instrumental in national AI readiness to foster disruptive thinking, expanding broadband access to marginalized communities, and initiating advanced digital skills programs in frontier technologies. This also comes soon after the approval of Zimbabwe’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy in November 2025.

Minister Mavetera joins fellow ICT ministers from Nigeria, Kenya, and Rwanda, alongside private sector giants from Google and Microsoft. This multi-stakeholder approach aims to solve African challenges such as food security and healthcare using AI rooted in African values.

As Zimbabwe continues to modernize its economy under NDS2, Mavetera’s seat on the Council will help ensure the nation’s voice is heard in shaping the ethics and standards of the global AI transformation.

Composition of the Africa AI Council

ICT Ministers (7):

H.E. Sid Ali Zerrouki, Minister of Post and Telecommunications, Algeria

H.E. Dr. Boukar Michel, Minister of Telecommunications, Digital Economy, and Digitalization, Chad

H.E. William Kabogo, Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communications & Digital Economy, Kenya

H.E. Dr. Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Nigeria

H.E. Paula Ingabire, Minister of ICT and Innovation, Rwanda

H.E. Cina Lawson, Minister of Digital Economy and Transformation, Togo

H.E. Tatenda Mavetera, Minister of Information, Communication Technology, Postal & Courier Services (ICTPCS), Zimbabwe

Independent Members (8):

Dr. Paulin Basinga, Director for Africa, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Karim Beguir, Founder & CEO, InstaDeep

Yasser Shaker, CEO, Orange Middle East and Africa

Chenai Chair, Director, Masakhane African Languages Hub

Akua Gyekye, Senior Director and Head of Government Affairs – Africa, Microsoft

Prof. Vukosi Marivate, Chair of Data Science, University of Pretoria / Co-Founder, Lelapa AI / Deep Learning Indaba

Walid Naffati, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Tunisie Haut Débit

Alex Okosi, Managing Director for Sub-Saharan Africa, Google