East Africa can power a new Green Intelligence export economy, but it must first convert its natural capital into a competitive edge.
As East Africa heads the inaugural Ai Everything Kenya x GITEX in Nairobi, Chief ICT Officer at the Uganda Electricity Generation Company, Albert Murungi discussed how East Africa can transform its renewable energy advantage into scalable, globally competitive AI infrastructure.
Murungi noted that as the global race to scale AI intensifies and energy demands rise exponentially, one reality is becoming increasingly clear, access to abundant, low-carbon energy will determine where the world’s next AI infrastructure will be built.
He pointed out that for East Africa, there lies an unprecedented opportunity to harness a technology already projected to add a potential US$1.5 trillion to the wider African economy by 2030.
“From Kenya and Ethiopia to Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, vast untapped wind corridors, high solar irradiation, and immense hydropower capacity uniquely position the region to convert renewable energy into a strategic advantage for next-generation compute infrastructure. Yet realising this opportunity at scale is not a foregone conclusion,” Murungi explained.
According to Murungi, success will depend on how effectively East Africa translates natural capital into competitive advantage.
This perspective comes ahead of Ai Everything Kenya x GITEX Kenya, East Africa’s largest tech, AI, and startup show and the inaugural edition takes place from 19th to 21st May in Nairobi.
The event presents an Inclusive AI Summit at the Sarit Expo Centre, followed by an Expo and Conference at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre.
An eagerly anticipated event poised to advance sovereign, inclusive, and investment-driven AI ecosystems across East Africa and Murungi will join a distinguished expert lineup to explore the defining trends, challenges, and prospects shaping AI deployment across critical digital economy sectors.
The event, responsible for overseeing the digital backbone of a national power generation network, few are better placed to assess East Africa’s AI energy landscape.
However, Murungi, is an industry leader committed to modernising critical energy systems in support of AI-ready compute and data centre infrastructure.
“To turn energy into a competitive edge, the region must move from simply having green power to offering ready-to-plug green zones. This requires co-locating hyperscale data centres directly at geothermal and hydropower sources to eliminate transmission losses and wheeling costs,” He said.
Murungi points out that, while East Africa holds the potential to power a new class of low-carbon, AI-ready data centres at a time when energy constraints are rapidly becoming the defining bottleneck in global AI buildout, transmission losses remain a critical constraint.
Although the region is set to capture a greater share of the continental data centre market – projected to increase from US 2.22 billion dollars in 2026 to US4.36 billion dollars by 2031, grid inefficiencies could undermine its global competitiveness.
It is reported that in 2025, transmission and distribution losses across East African nations remained as high as 18–25% – far exceeding the global average of 7–8%.
“Regulatory harmonisation and grid stability are immediate priorities. The region must fast-track integration of the Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP) to ensure cross-border energy reliability. Policy-makers must simultaneously align data protection and sovereignty laws to create a unified regional market. Without a seamless legal and electrical grid, global investors will see the region as a fragmented risk rather than a consolidated opportunity,” Murungi explained.
Murungi highlight that compelling statistics amplify the imperatives and while broadband expansion, data centre development, and terrestrial and subsea cable rollouts have accelerated across the region in recent years, Xalam estimates that cumulative capex from regional providers must reach US$10–15 billion between 2025 and 2030 to sustain East Africa’s infrastructure expansion.
It’s equally noteworthy that East Africa sits within one of the world’s most underpenetrated digital infrastructure markets, underscored by the entire African continent accounting for 0.6% of global data centre capacity. Crucially, the building blocks for sustained progress are taking shape – and East Africa is increasingly well positioned to capitalise on a generational opportunity.
According to Murungi, the essential next steps for infrastructure expansion
While large-scale growth has yet to fully materialise, East Africa already holds the second-largest data centre capacity block in Sub-Saharan Africa and is entering a new phase of hyperscale AI infrastructure and domestic compute expansion – underpinned by rising investment in sovereign infrastructure.
A standout example he said, is Kenya, where Microsoft and G42 have committed US$1 billion to develop a geothermal-powered AI data centre, designed to anchor a new East Africa cloud region for AI and advanced compute workloads.
He pointed out another is Uganda, where NVIDIA is collaborating on the “Aeonian Project”, a 100MW green data centre aimed at hosting Africa’s first sovereign AI supercomputer.
With these insights in mind, a critical question arises: can East Africa leverage its renewable abundance to become a genuine global hub for clean AI?
For Murungi, the answer is yes – provided the necessary conditions for scalable, reliable AI workloads are created and urgent issues are addressed.
“The primary bottlenecks are rigid procurement cycles and infrastructure lead times. To accelerate time to market, utilities should adopt a master-planned approach: pre-installing high-voltage substations and fibre-optic backbones in designated hubs before developers arrive.” He said.
Murungi added that governments can accelerate time to market by standardising direct power purchase agreements (PPAs), enabling data centres to procure energy directly from renewable producers without the delays of single-buyer state monopolies.
“By establishing Special Digital Economic Zones with tax incentives for green compute, East Africa can market itself as the global destination for tech firms seeking to meet strict net-zero mandates for their AI training workloads,” He said.
Murungi was unequivocal when asked about East Africa’s greatest untapped opportunity in clean, AI-powered infrastructure, outlining a clear vision for what success could look like if the region fully harnesses its potential.
“The biggest opportunity is in localised edge AI. Rather than being a landlord for global data, East Africa can host the compute that powers indigenous AI solutions for agriculture, climate resilience, and fintech.” He said.
With East Africa’s energy endowment is exceptional in both scale and diversity – coupled with the socio-economic value of renewables and digital infrastructure – Murungi believes the region holds significant headroom for growth and investment, where clean compute could become a defining advantage in the evolving AI race.
“Success ultimately looks like Nairobi, Kampala, Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, and others becoming carbon-neutral compute hubs where the cost of a unit of AI processing is the lowest globally – fuelling a new export economy based on Green Intelligence rather than raw materials.” He concluded.
