The EU AI Act Beyond Europe: A Practical Readiness Framework for Non-EU Organisations. Comparative Evidence from Four African Countries

The EU Artificial Intelligence Act has implications for organisations within Europe as well as organisations outside the European Union where they provide AI-enabled services to EU clients, use European vendors, participate in EU-facing supply chains, or generate outputs that are used in the EU. This study examines the implications of these impacts for African countries and other non-EU organisations, using South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt as comparative cases. It applies doctrinal legal analysis, structured document review and scenario-based comparison to assess the sufficiency or otherwise of existing regulatory frameworks within the selected countries. The analysis shows that the existing regulatory frameworks (like data-protection, financial-sector, cybersecurity and corporate-governance rules) can support AI readiness, but they do not resolve questions of territorial scope, role classification, risk categorisation, vendor responsibility and access to compliance evidence. The analysis proposes a seven-step readiness framework which covers exposure mapping, AI inventories, role and risk classification, governance, contracts, evidence management and continuous monitoring. It argues for proportionate, interoperable approaches that enable non-EU organisations to demonstrate readiness without treating EU compliance as a uniform exercise.