African Governments Are Now Training Their Civil Servants to Use AI as AfDB Launches Free Programme for Public Officials
Africa’s Public Sector Is Getting an AI Skills Upgrade
Artificial intelligence is no longer being discussed only as a technology for startups, banks, universities and private companies. Governments across Africa are increasingly looking at how AI can change the way public institutions work, and a new programme from the African Development Bank Group is putting skills development at the centre of that transition.
On September 25, 2026, the African Development Bank Group announced the launch of a free AI training programme for public officials across Africa, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme’s AI Hub for Sustainable Development, Google and Apolitical.
The programme was announced during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, UNGA81, in New York. Rather than simply encouraging governments to experiment with AI, the initiative is designed to help public officials understand what artificial intelligence can do, where its risks lie and how it can be applied responsibly to government work.
For African countries dealing with growing demands for faster public services, digital transformation and more efficient administration, the programme represents a significant push toward building practical AI capability inside government.
What Has Been Launched?
The African Development Bank Group has partnered with the United Nations Development Programme AI Hub for Sustainable Development, Google and Apolitical to extend Apolitical’s Government AI Campus to eligible African public officials.
The training is delivered online and is self-paced, meaning participants can work through the available learning materials according to their own schedules. Importantly, the training is free of charge for serving government officials and public servants in the African Development Bank’s regional member countries who are working in areas such as AI in public service delivery, digital infrastructure, public-private partnerships or innovation.
The initiative builds on an existing global AI-training infrastructure. Apolitical’s Government AI Campus has already been used by public servants internationally, with Apolitical reporting in May 2026 that 500,000 public servants across 163 countries had been trained, with courses available in multiple languages.
The Three Key AI Courses for African Public Officials
Under the Government AI Campus, African participants will have access to courses specifically designed around the realities of government.
One of the central courses is “AI Fundamentals for Public Servants: Opportunities, Risks and Strategies”. It is intended to help public officials understand artificial intelligence, its potential applications and the risks that governments need to consider when deploying it.
Another is “AI Leadership in Government: Building Trust, Skills and an Innovative Culture”. This moves beyond simply teaching individuals how AI works. It addresses the leadership and organisational side of AI adoption, including the importance of trust, skills and institutional culture.
The third course highlighted by the African Development Bank is “Smarter Procurement with AI”. This focuses on the relationship between artificial intelligence and government procurement, an important area because governments are major buyers of technology, goods and services.
The courses were developed by Stanford University Online and SDA Bocconi School of Management, while Google and Apolitical are providing the learning platform and content.
Why Is AI Training Important for African Governments?
This huge initiative comes against the backdrop of a much larger question: how can African countries benefit from AI without being left behind by the technology?
The African Development Bank has argued that artificial intelligence could have a substantial economic impact on the continent if it is deployed inclusively and supported by the right foundations.
Its report, “Africa’s AI Productivity Gain: Pathways to Labour Efficiency, Economic Growth and Inclusive Transformation,” projects that inclusive AI deployment could potentially add up to $1 trillion to Africa’s gross domestic product by 2035.
The Bank identifies five important enablers for achieving these potential gains: data, compute, skills, trust and capital. The new training programme directly addresses one of those areas: skills.
Having access to AI tools does not automatically mean that public institutions know how to use them effectively. Government officials need to understand the technology, its limitations, its risks and the appropriate ways to integrate it into public-sector processes.
Ousmane Fall: “AI Is Changing How We Work”
The African Development Bank has acknowledged that AI skills within government have not received enough attention.
Ousmane Fall, Director for Industrial and Trade Development at the African Development Bank Group, said the technology is already changing the nature of work.
“AI is changing how we work. It promises major productivity gains if users fully understand its application.”
Ousmane Fall
Fall added that building this understanding within government “has been neglected” and said the partnership was intended to address that gap. That becomes particularly important when AI is used around sensitive government information, public services, procurement, policy development and decision-making.
UNDP Says Governments Need Stronger AI Foundations
The United Nations Development Programme is also positioning government capability as an important part of Africa’s AI transition.
Keyzom Ngodup Massally, Director of the AI Hub for Sustainable Development and UNDP Head of Digital & AI Programmes, said governments need support as the AI landscape continues to change.
“Governments across Africa need timely support to strengthen the institutional and technical foundations required to participate meaningfully in the AI economy.”
Keyzom Ngodup Massally
The statement reflects an important reality about AI adoption in government: technology alone is not enough. Governments also need people who understand AI, institutions capable of managing it, appropriate policies, reliable infrastructure and mechanisms for responsible use.
The involvement of the UNDP AI Hub for Sustainable Development gives the initiative a wider international-development dimension, while the African Development Bank brings a specific African economic and institutional focus. The AI Hub itself is described as a G7-endorsed initiative co-led by the UNDP and Italy’s Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy.
The African Development Bank Group is a founding member of the AI Hub’s Executive Steering Group. The initiative also aligns with Italy’s Mattei Plan for Africa. This places the African public-sector AI training programme within a broader international effort to develop government capacity around artificial intelligence.
What the Government AI Campus Already Does
The African initiative is built on Apolitical’s existing Government AI Campus, which was established to help public servants and governments prepare for the increasing role of AI. The platform provides courses designed specifically for public servants, as well as AI-readiness tools, research, expert discussions and resources for government leaders.
As of May 2026, Apolitical reported that the Government AI Campus had reached 500,000 public servants in 163 countries and 12 languages. The organisation also reported that 75% of public servants using the Campus said they were more confident using AI tools and techniques.
Apolitical said its data showed that 84% of surveyed public servants agreed that the campus made them more effective at their jobs, while 87% agreed that the training was relevant to their daily work. These figures are based on Apolitical’s own survey responses and should therefore be understood as programme-reported data rather than an independent evaluation of the programme’s impact.
Africa already has examples of governments taking public-sector AI training beyond individual experimentation.
Apolitical reported in May 2026 that Rwanda’s Ministry of ICT and Innovation and Ministry of Public Service and Labour had made the Government AI Campus’s flagship course mandatory for the country’s public service.
According to Apolitical, nearly 200,000 Rwandan public servants had completed the training, with at least 76% of those participants being frontline workers.
That example helps explain why the African Development Bank’s new initiative is significant. AI adoption in government is increasingly moving from isolated individuals experimenting with AI toward institutional questions about workforce capability, governance and responsible deployment.
Nigeria Is Already Part of Africa’s Wider Government AI Conversation
Nigeria is also represented in the broader Government AI Campus ecosystem. Apolitical’s 2026 Government AI 100 identifies Didi Esther Walson-Jack, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, among public-sector figures working on AI capacity and capability-building.
Apolitical describes her work as including the introduction of Service-Wide GPT, an AI tool trained on Nigerian public-service rules, laws and regulations and intended to support civil servants in areas including policy drafting, decision-making and productivity.
These are separate developments from the September 25 African Development Bank announcement, but they demonstrate that AI adoption and AI capability-building are already being explored within parts of Nigeria’s federal public service.
One of the most important aspects of the programme is that it does not frame AI simply as a chatbot or productivity tool. The course selection covers fundamentals, leadership, risk, trust, skills and procurement.
AI could potentially be used in areas such as document processing, data analysis, research, administrative workflows, service delivery and procurement. However, government adoption also raises questions about accuracy, accountability, privacy, bias, cybersecurity, transparency and human oversight.
The presence of courses focused on risks, trust and leadership suggests that the programme is attempting to address both the opportunities and the difficult questions surrounding AI in public institutions.
Who Can Take the Training?
According to the African Development Bank, enrolment is open and free for serving government officials and public servants in the Bank’s regional member countries who work in areas connected to AI in public service delivery, digital infrastructure, public-private partnerships or innovation.
The training is self-paced and delivered through the Government AI Campus.
The programme therefore has a clearly defined target audience rather than being a general AI course for the entire African population.
Interested public servants can access the Government AI Campus and the African Development Bank’s announcement provides the programme’s application information.
Conclusion
Training civil servants is an important step, but training by itself does not automatically create AI-ready governments. Public institutions still need reliable digital infrastructure, appropriate data systems, cybersecurity, clear rules for AI use and sufficient computing capacity.
The African Development Bank’s own report recognises this by identifying data, compute, skills, trust and capital as the five enabling conditions for inclusive AI deployment.
That means the challenge facing African governments is whether government institutions have the infrastructure, policies, systems and safeguards necessary to turn AI knowledge into responsible public-sector applications.
Announced on September 25, 2026, during UNGA81 in New York, the programme brings together the African Development Bank, UNDP AI Hub for Sustainable Development, Google and Apolitical to give eligible African public servants access to structured AI learning through the Government AI Campus.
For African governments, the message is becoming increasingly clear: the AI race is not only about who builds the next powerful technology. It is also about whether the people responsible for delivering public services understand how to use that technology effectively, responsibly and safely.
And with free AI training now being extended to public officials across the African Development Bank’s regional member countries, the continent’s civil service is becoming an increasingly important part of Africa’s AI story.
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