SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY : Uganda’s push to position itself at the forefront of Africa’s artificial intelligence (AI) future took center stage at the Uganda DeepTech Summit, a flagship event under the National Science Week 2026. Bringing together policymakers, researchers, innovators, and global technology leaders, the summit delivered a clear message: Uganda must urgently bridge the gap between its education system and the rapidly evolving demands of an AI-driven economy.
Held under the theme “Positioning Uganda as a Regional Gateway for Applied AI Innovation,” the summit comes at a pivotal moment. While Uganda has made notable strides in digital transformation particularly in mobile innovation, financial inclusion, and e-governance, experts say the country risks falling behind if it does not transition from basic digitisation to deploying intelligent, AI-driven systems.
Speaking at the summit, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Monica Musenero Masanza, underscored both the progress made and the structural challenges that remain.
“For too long, our systems have produced knowledge without translating it into economic value. The gap between what we teach and what the market needs is what we have called the ‘Black Box’. We must now close that gap by turning science into products, industries, and jobs,” she said.
Her remarks draw from Uganda’s latest State of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) report, which revealed that industrialisation linked to STI stands at just 10.6%, while commercialisation remains as low as 5.5%. Access to financing for innovation is also limited at 16.8%: figures that highlight a disconnect between academic output and real-world application.
At the heart of the discussions was a growing consensus that Uganda’s education system, largely inherited from colonial-era frameworks, has not kept pace with the demands of modern technology industries. Participants pointed out that while curricula exist, they are often overly theoretical and insufficiently aligned with industry needs.
“Students are leaving university without the practical exposure required to solve real-world problems,” noted David Gonahasa from the Science, Technology and Innovation Secretariat. “We need to shift from producing AI users to producing AI creators. That means embedding problem-solving, data skills, and innovation into how we teach from the ground up.”
The numbers reinforce this urgency. Africa accounts for only about 1% of global AI compute capacity and creators, leaving the continent heavily dependent on imported technologies. For Uganda, this reliance poses a significant risk: foreign-built AI systems often fail to account for local contexts such as language diversity, infrastructure limitations, and socio-economic realities.
Summit participants argued that the solution lies in developing African-built AI tools tailored to local needs. In sectors like agriculture and healthcare, critical to Uganda’s economy, AI applications designed for the local context could deliver transformative impact.
Examples shared during the summit included AI-powered diagnostic tools that can run on low-cost mobile devices without internet connectivity, and agricultural solutions that help farmers predict weather patterns or detect crop diseases in real time.
“An AI tool built for Silicon Valley will not necessarily work for a farmer in Mbale or a health worker in Karamoja,” one panelist noted. “We must build for our realities.”
However, building such solutions requires more than just technology, it demands a fundamental rethink of how Uganda develops talent.
Key proposals emerging from the summit included integrating private sector players into academia to provide students with hands-on experience, establishing research labs for graduates to continue developing practical solutions, and revising assessment methods to prioritise innovation over rote learning.
There was also a strong call to upskill educators themselves. Many teachers remain hesitant to adopt AI tools, even as students increasingly use them. Experts warned that resistance to AI in classrooms could widen the skills gap further.
“AI is already shaping how students learn, whether we like it or not,” said one education specialist. “The question is whether teachers will lead that process or be left behind by it.”
Beyond education, the summit highlighted broader systemic gaps that continue to limit Uganda’s AI ambitions. These include a shortage of high-performance computing infrastructure, fragmented data ecosystems, and underinvestment in research and development. Currently, Uganda invests just 0.17% of its GDP in STI, far below the 2.5% target outlined in Vision 2040.
Despite these challenges, there are signs of progress. Government-led initiatives have begun to demonstrate the economic potential of science and innovation. Over the past five years, the STI ecosystem has generated assets worth an estimated USD 1.52 billion: more than four times the initial government investment and created over 150,000 jobs.
Yet, as stakeholders at the summit emphasised, the next phase of growth will depend on Uganda’s ability to align its education system, policy frameworks, and industry needs with the realities of an AI-driven world.
“The runway has been built,” Minister Musenero said in closing. “Now it is time for takeoff.” For Uganda, that takeoff will hinge not just on adopting new technologies, but on building the human capital and local solutions needed to compete in a global digital economy on its own terms.
