Africa needs computing capacity, cloud services and artificial-intelligence infrastructure. It should not accept a model in which communities surrender scarce water and electricity while ownership and profits remain elsewhere.

Data centres can support jobs and digital sovereignty, but governments must disclose resource commitments, environmental effects, incentives and the actual number and quality of local jobs created.

The goal should be partnership rather than extraction: renewable supply, local skills, African data governance and enforceable community benefits must form part of every major agreement.

Sources: Associated Press and Al Jazeera’s examination of African AI infrastructure.