By Sani Saidu Muhammad
Africa, particularly the Sahel region, is confronting a new wave of extraction driven not by armies or chartered companies but by algorithms, biometric systems, and artificial intelligence platforms controlled largely from the Global North, a new report has warned .
The report, The Silicon Scramble for Africa, argues that Western-led “inclusive AI” and digital identity programmes are reproducing colonial patterns of resource extraction, this time centred on data, minerals, and invisible digital labour while offering limited benefits to African communities.
It describes the continent as an emerging testing ground for algorithmic systems marketed as tools for financial inclusion, digital governance, and development, but which often rely on large-scale biometric data collection and foreign-owned digital infrastructure.
Biometrics and the erosion of communal identity
According to the report, national digital identity schemes such as Nigeria’s National Identity Number (NIN) and Ghana’s Ghana Card are reshaping citizenship in ways that prioritise individual data profiles over long-standing communal systems of identity and social trust .
Nigeria’s NIN programme is expected to enrol about 126 million people, while Ghana has issued identity cards to roughly 17 million residents. These systems capture fingerprints, facial images and iris scans, creating centralised databases that critics say convert citizens into data assets.
The report warns that this shift undermines communal structures such as cooperative savings groups and kinship-based accountability, replacing them with algorithmic assessments tied to global credit systems and surveillance technologies.
Foreign clouds, local risks
Despite the scale of biometric enrolment across West Africa, the report notes that Africa hosts less than one per cent of global data centre capacity, meaning sensitive personal data is often stored or processed on servers controlled by multinational technology firms .
In Nigeria alone, biometric banking data linked to the Bank Verification Number (BVN) covers more than 67 million people. Yet repeated allegations of data breaches and black-market sales of identity information have raised concerns about regulatory oversight and accountability.
Investigations cited in the report claim that sensitive identity data has been sold for as little as ₦150 per request, with authorities accused of focusing enforcement efforts on journalists rather than illicit data brokers.
AI built on African soil and labour
Beyond data extraction, the report highlights the physical foundations of artificial intelligence systems, pointing to Africa’s role as a supplier of critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt and manganese used in AI hardware and batteries.
Mali’s Goulamina lithium project alone holds an estimated 142 million tonnes of reserves, while the Democratic Republic of Congo supplies around 70 per cent of the world’s cobalt output. These resources, the report argues, are extracted under conditions that often exclude environmental costs and local economic benefits from global value chains .
It also draws attention to the “ghost work” economy underpinning AI, where low-paid workers in countries such as Ghana, Kenya and South Africa label data, moderate content and train algorithms for Western tech firms—work that is largely hidden from end users.
AI-driven insecurity in the Sahel
The report further warns that artificial intelligence is increasingly being weaponised in the Sahel through disinformation campaigns, deepfake videos and synthetic audio messages impersonating political and community leaders.
In 2025, fabricated videos and audio clips allegedly circulated to create false narratives of political alliances and military directives, fuelling mistrust and social tension. The report describes this phenomenon as “synthetic insecurity,” capable of weakening already fragile governance and communal authority structures.
Call for data sovereignty and communal rights
To counter what it describes as “biometric colonialism,” the report proposes a framework known as the Communal Data Dividend, which would treat data as a shared community resource rather than an individual commodity.
Key recommendations include recognising collective data rights, requiring technology companies to pay royalties for the use of African data, and investing in regional digital infrastructure to ensure that biometric and identity systems are hosted within Africa.
The report also urges governments to audit contracts with foreign technology partners, strengthen oversight of national identity agencies, and harmonise mining policies to ensure that AI-related mineral extraction delivers tangible local benefits.
“Technology does not have to mean erasure,” the report concludes, arguing that African states can reclaim agency over digital systems by embedding communal values, transparency and sovereignty into AI governance frameworks .
