Xinhua Headlines: AI, broadband and drones: How Chinese digital technologies are reshaping daily life in Africa

* "Across Africa, Chinese digital technologies are doing more than connecting places," said an economics professor. "They are connecting people to knowledge, healthcare, markets and one another, which is a transformation that will ultimately be measured not by infrastructure alone, but by the opportunities it creates for ordinary people."

by Xinhua writers Hua Hongli, Lin Guangyao, Liu Fangqiang

DAR ES SALAAM, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Artificial intelligence is increasingly part of daily life across Africa, thanks to growing China-Africa digital cooperation.

In Ethiopia, forecasters use a China-developed platform to issue drought and flash flood warnings. In South Africa, AI-assisted tools are helping doctors improve traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis. Across the country's sugarcane belt, Chinese-made drones now spray fields that once relied on manual labor.

Behind these applications lies years of digital infrastructure development. From 4G towers serving remote communities in northern Namibia to fiber backbones stretching across Zimbabwe, from a base station perched on Mount Kilimanjaro to community broadband in Kenya's Kibera neighborhood, connectivity has steadily expanded across the continent.

Taken together, these developments point to a broader shift in the digital cooperation between China and Africa. Beyond bringing people online, it is helping deliver practical services -- from disaster preparedness and healthcare to agriculture -- while enabling local professionals to operate, adapt and increasingly innovate with these technologies themselves.

CONNECTING THE UNCONNECTED

Across much of Africa, rugged terrain, dispersed populations and the high cost of infrastructure deployment have long constrained access to reliable digital services.

Chinese telecommunications company Huawei has worked with Namibia's Mobile Telecommunications Limited since 2025 on Project Buffalo, a rural network expansion and optimization initiative aimed at improving 4G connectivity in underserved communities in northern Namibia. The company is also supporting the second phase of the Universal Service Fund program run by the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia, helping to extend broadband to schools, health facilities and other public institutions.

For residents already connected, the impact is tangible.

"We used to go to the main road to make a phone call or drive to Eenhana to send emails," said Toivo Shilumbu, the principal at Shimbode Primary School in Epinga village. "Now we can send messages, make calls and access the internet in the comfort of our homes."

Xu Jianxi, board director of Huawei Namibia, said improved connectivity is giving rural communities greater access to online education, digital health services, entrepreneurial opportunities and agricultural information, helping narrow the digital divide.

In Zimbabwe, national internet penetration reached 87.39 percent in the first quarter of 2026, with 4.44 million subscriptions, according to the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, while the national fiber backbone now stretches beyond 19,000 kilometers.

Huawei and ZTE, another Chinese firm, have supported the country's information and communications technology development for years through network equipment, technical expertise and financing, helping local operators reach previously underserved communities.

Elsewhere, connectivity is reaching places that were once considered beyond its reach. For example, far above the plains of Tanzania, a Huawei base station stands on Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa.

Yet communication towers, fiber and bandwidth are only the beginning, said Humphrey Moshi, an economics professor at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

The true value of digital connectivity emerges when it improves how people learn, receive medical care, and earn a living and experience the world, he added.

THE IMPACT

With a tap on her tablet, teacher Dorice Nereah brings colorful images of fruits, animals and faraway places to life for dozens of children.

"Children understand much better when they can see real images," Nereah said from Kibera, Kenya's largest informal neighborhood, where reliable internet access was once a luxury. "The internet has made my lessons more interesting and has also helped me improve my own teaching."

Today, affordable community broadband is opening opportunities for learning, employment and small businesses.

Benard Ochieng, who grew up in Kibera, once relied on occasional manual jobs to support his family. After joining the community broadband project, he received training in fiber-optic installation and network maintenance, turning a temporary opportunity into a stable profession.

"The income has changed my life," he said, enabling him to move his family into a larger brick house while supporting both his children and younger siblings.

Across the continent, AI-powered technologies are also strengthening public services, from weather forecasting to healthcare.

In Ethiopia, the China-developed MAZU (Multi-hazard, Alert, Zero-gap and Universal) early warning system is helping improve weather forecasting and disaster preparedness.

The system integrates AI and physical forecasting models with satellite observations and local meteorological data to deliver more precise weather forecasts, according to the China Meteorological Administration. After targeted training from visiting Chinese scientists, Ethiopian meteorologists now operate the platform, issuing real-time alerts against hazards including droughts and flash floods.

Receiving MAZU has made the Ethiopian Meteorological Institute (EMI) a pioneer on the continent, according to Asaminew Teshome, the institute's deputy director general, adding that the institute aims to serve as a regional knowledge hub by sharing its hands-on experience with other African meteorological centers.

In July, Ethiopia also became one of 29 founding members of the Shanghai-headquartered World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, which is tasked with promoting international cooperation and global governance on AI.

In Zanzibar, Tanzania, members of the 35th Chinese medical team have established regular remote multidisciplinary consultations with specialists at the First People's Hospital of Lianyungang in east China's Jiangsu Province.

The platform has supported the treatment of complex neurosurgical, hepatobiliary and oncology cases, allowing patients to receive multidisciplinary expertise without traveling abroad while giving local doctors direct access to the experience of Chinese specialists, said Yuan Gang, a medical team member and radiologist.

"I had never seen a consultation like this, with so many experts working together for one patient," said Haisam, one of the attending doctors.

Digital innovation is also finding new applications in traditional Chinese medicine. At the African Center of Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture in Johannesburg, South Africa, AI-assisted assessment tools are combined with clinical diagnosis and online consultations with Chinese specialists to improve efficiency and support practitioner training.

"AI could support doctors by making traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis more standardized, visualized and efficient," said Hu Zijing, head of the center and an associate professor at the University of Johannesburg.

BUILDING LOCAL CAPACITY

Alongside the platforms themselves, training has been a consistent feature of the collaborative relationship between China and Africa.

Most of the EMI's experts have been trained at Chinese institutions including the China Meteorological Administration, in programs ranging from short courses to long-term academic study, Teshome said. Training has covered satellite data analysis, climate forecasting models, atmospheric research and disaster risk management systems adapted to local conditions.

Digital technologies are likewise reshaping agriculture.

At Fountainhill Estate in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal Province, Chinese-made agricultural drones are helping farmers spray pesticides and fertilizer across dense sugarcane fields more efficiently than traditional manual methods.

Contractor John Prinsloo, who now provides drone services to 26 nearby farms, said the technology has significantly improved efficiency.

"Chinese drone technology has helped us manage crops more precisely," he said.

Since entering the South African market in 2020, agricultural drones produced by Chinese company XAG have served more than 66,000 hectares. Similar technologies are now operating in rice fields in Mozambique, wheat fields in Ethiopia and vegetable farms in Ghana.

Digital cooperation is increasingly being measured not simply by faster networks or more advanced technologies, but by the opportunities they create for ordinary people.

For teacher Dorice Nereah, those benefits are already visible in her classroom. For meteorologists in Addis Ababa, they are reflected in the flood alerts they have been trained to issue. For farmers in South Africa, they are measured in healthier crops and more efficient harvests.

"Across Africa, Chinese digital technologies are doing more than connecting places," said Moshi, the economics professor. "They are connecting people to knowledge, healthcare, markets and one another, which is a transformation that will ultimately be measured not by infrastructure alone, but by the opportunities it creates for ordinary people."

(Video reporters: Hua Hongli, Fan Haoyu, Liu Fangqiang, Dai He; video editors: Zheng Xin, Roger Lott, Wei Yin, Liu Ruoshi)■