Rwanda, Nigeria and Benin top the first Africa AI Governance Index (AAIGI), published in 2026 by Lawyers Hub, a pan-African think tank specializing in legal technology, through its Africa AI Policy Lab.
The index scores all 54 African countries on their national strategies, regulatory frameworks and infrastructure for governing artificial intelligence — a fast-growing sector still unevenly regulated across the continent.
The report's main takeaway isn't the ranking itself so much as the gap it reveals between AI policymaking and its actual operational implementation on the ground.
The top three owe their position to early investment in digital infrastructure and to regulatory frameworks that adapt international standards to local realities rather than simply copying them.
For lower-ranked countries, including Cameroon, the message is clear: having a national strategy on paper isn't enough without the institutional and technical capacity to back it up, especially in high-potential sectors like health, education or agriculture.
The AAIGI doesn't claim to settle who will win the continent's AI race — it simply shows that the race is being run as much in the drafting of laws as in their day-to-day enforcement.
