Is the public sector Africa’s hidden force for AI-driven healthcare transformation?

The transformative impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in today’s interconnected world is extensive, reshaping capabilities, enhancing efficiencies, and creating pathways to address critical global challenges. AI demonstrates potential in healthcare for improving outcomes through enhanced diagnostics, predictive analytics, and personalized treatment plans, directly contributing to Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3) on good health and well-being. However, the benefits of AI remain unevenly distributed, with notable gaps in adoption and access, particularly in lower-resource regions like Africa. This paper conducts a comprehensive scoping review to examine the role of the public sector in advancing AI integration within African healthcare systems. The key contributions include: (1) synthesizing existing research to identify trends, gaps, and progress in AI adoption, (2) highlighting practical examples of AI applications that show promise in improving healthcare delivery, (3) analyzing the major barriers to widespread adoption, and (4) outlining policy implications and actionable recommendations. The discussion is framed around six core components of a sustainable AI ecosystem: skills development, data access, computational resources, supportive policy environments, financing, and multi-sector partnerships. The findings suggest that with coordinated public sector leadership, strategic investment, and effective policy implementation, AI can improve healthcare outcomes and support sustainable development across the continent.