Artificial Intelligence · Congo
AI regulation in Congo (2026)
Congo shaded by its artificial intelligence status
The Republic of Congo has no binding AI-specific legislation. The country's AI governance rests on the 'Vision Congo Digital 2025' national digital strategy, which lists AI as a cross-cutting priority, and on the ARCAI research centre inaugurated in Brazzaville in February 2022 — Africa's first AI research centre, co-established with the UN Economic Commission for Africa. In January 2026, the telecoms regulator ARPCE convened a five-day strategic seminar on digital regulation and AI governance to develop a national regulatory roadmap, signalling that formal rulemaking is being actively prepared but has not yet produced binding rules.
Key points
As of early 2026 the Republic of Congo has no legislation specifically governing artificial intelligence. Existing laws — the Personal Data Protection Law, the Cybersecurity Law, and the Cybercrime Law — do not address AI use, leaving a acknowledged regulatory gap.
Africa's first AI research centre, ARCAI (African Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence), was inaugurated in Brazzaville on 24 February 2022 inside Denis Sassou-Nguesso University at Kintélé, under a partnership between the Republic of Congo government and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). It offers MSc programmes in AI and data science and is intended to anchor continental AI capacity-building.
The government's 'Vision Congo Digital 2025' national strategy lists AI among its digital transformation priorities alongside e-government, data protection, and connectivity. It has triggered updates to the country's legal framework but has not yet produced dedicated AI rules.
In January 2026 the Regulatory Postal and Electronic Communications Agency (ARPCE) hosted a five-day high-level seminar in Brazzaville on digital regulation and AI governance, convening international experts (including specialists from HEC Paris and Université Libre de Bruxelles), public institutions, and the private sector to draft a national AI regulatory roadmap.
In November 2023 UNESCO, partnering with ARCAI and the Smart Africa Digital Academy, trained 80 Congolese judicial actors in Brazzaville on AI, human rights, and the rule of law using UNESCO's Global Toolkit on AI and the Rule of Law — building capacity ahead of anticipated AI legislation.
The Republic of Congo has enacted a Personal Data Protection Law and established the National Commission for the Protection of Personal Data (CNDP). These provide some foundational consumer-data safeguards applicable to AI-driven processing, but analysts note they do not fill the AI-specific regulatory gap.
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Last verified 5/24/2026 · Orientation, not legal advice - verify against the primary sources linked above. Explore the full world map →