Explore our priorities and areas of interventions to unlock the potential of Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing in Africa.
The Alliance for I4.0 and Smart Manufacturing in Africa (AISMA) provides a platform for information sharing, consultations, knowledge creation and innovative proposals on Industry 4.0 related themes, while offering a number of tools and functions to its members. The developed tools and concepts will be piloted in selected countries in the African continent for demonstration purposes. The achievements will then be promoted and shared with different African stakeholders, in order to upscale and duplicate the successes achieved on a wider range in different countries.
The Alliance focuses on six strategic priorities:
AISMA also considers several cross-cutting areas, including:
AISMA aims to increase productivity and competitiveness across various sectors in Africa, including manufacturing, health, agriculture, infrastructure, ICT, and mining. The Alliance supports industries in their digitalization and industrialization journeys, promotes networking between industry value chains and technology providers, and facilitates access to Industry 4.0 methods and tools.
Examples of activities:
selecting priority industrial sectors, setting up working groups, organizing sector-specific symposia, helping industries launch/deploy value chain optimization projects using Industry 4.0 technologies.
AISMA aims to leverage digital and smart manufacturing technologies to drive efficiency, innovation, and economic growth, enabling African countries to overcome traditional development paths and infrastructure limitations. The Alliance offers concrete and tailored solutions for industries (technologies, tools, infrastructure, providers) to facilitate fast, inclusive and sustainable adoption and dissemination of frontier technologies.
Examples of activities:
developing a comprehensive digitalization/smart manufacturing strategy, implementing roadmaps and guidelines, establishing strategic collaborations, developing innovation hubs/labs, organizing digital technology exhibitions.
AISMA aims to enhance digital and technological skills by developing a digital mindset among African stakeholders, promoting Industry 4.0-related jobs and preparing employees and future generations for human-centric, sustainable and resilient production under the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Examples of activities:
designing training programs, harmonizing training standards, developing training of trainers, supporting the establishment of Center of Excellence, conducting market surveys, developing blended learning infrastructure.
AISMA aims to inform academia and industry about current Industry 4.0 trends and future applications by supporting scientific research and innovation.
Examples of activities:
call for papers on various topics, competitions in digital technology patents, innovation awards.
AISMA aims to update legal frameworks to accommodate Industry 4.0 applications, covering labor rights, data ownership, human-machine cooperation, and ethical aspects of technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Examples of activities:
analyzing the impact of I4.0 technologies on labor, proposing data ownership laws, governing continental databases for AI modeling.
AISMA aims to develop policy briefs and studies related to Industry 4.0 applications, advocating for establishing an Industry 4.0 culture and helping formulate implementation policies.
Examples of activities:
producing policy briefs on various I4.0 topics, developing an industrialization roadmap for Africa, organizing scientific symposia, establishing high-level dialogues with countries.
