AI regulation in Mauritius (2026)

Launched 9 April 2026, the 'AI for Mauritius' strategy sets a five-year roadmap for AI integration across healthcare, fintech, agriculture, manufacturing, and public services, and mandates establishment of a Mauritius Artificial Intelligence Council (MAIC) to steer implementation and measure socioeconomic impact.

Accompanying the strategy, the FAIR Guidelines establish voluntary but government-endorsed ethical expectations — Fairness, Accountability, Inclusiveness, Integrity — applying to the full AI lifecycle (design through decommissioning) and explicitly tied to public procurement decisions and policy development.

The Financial Services Commission issued Fintech Series Guidance Notes No. 4 (4 September 2025) setting nine principles — fairness and bias mitigation, transparency, accountability, privacy, security, environmental sustainability, human-centricity, continuous monitoring, and compliance ethics — applicable to all FSC-licensed insurers, wealth managers, and NBFIs, with a mandatory human-in-the-loop requirement for critical decisions.

The Financial Services (Robotic and Artificial Intelligence Enabled Advisory Services) Rules 2021 are the only binding AI-specific sectoral law in force, licensing and regulating firms providing AI-driven financial advice; the Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2024 added an 80% income-tax exemption and a 15% investment tax credit for RAIAEAS licence holders.

The DPA 2017 (effective January 2018) applies to all automated personal-data processing including AI systems; it requires data protection impact assessments for high-risk profiling and automated decision-making, and the FSC Guidance Notes explicitly cross-reference DPA obligations for AI-driven decisions with legal or significant effect.

As of May 2026, no AI-specific bill has been introduced in the National Assembly. Legal commentary notes Mauritius envisages a hybrid regulatory approach drawing on the EU risk-based model and the UK principle-based model, but no formal legislative proposals have been tabled.