A significant stride in Africa's technological advancement has been made with the formation of AfricAI, a new joint venture uniting four prominent technology leaders: Lakeba Group from Australia, Next Digital from Nigeria, AqlanX from the UAE, and Agentic Dynamic from the Netherlands. The collaboration was formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding signed in August 2025, establishing a dedicated effort to develop and deploy artificial intelligence (AI) solutions tailored for the African continent, aiming to foster a new era of AI innovation and adoption.
Nigeria is positioned as AfricAI's primary market, leveraging existing data centers and edge infrastructure to deliver a range of AI applications. These solutions are designed to address critical sectors including healthcare, digital identity management, document automation, public administration, and various enterprise services. The venture's commitment to utilizing local infrastructure for AI workloads underscores its dedication to building a robust, continent-wide AI network that is both distributed and interoperable.
By 2026, AfricAI plans to extend its operational reach into Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Rwanda, reflecting a broad vision for widespread AI accessibility and advancement. The core objectives of AfricAI are rooted in creating sovereign AI applications that directly meet the unique needs of local markets. This includes the integration of modular, agent-based AI architecture, which allows for adaptive and responsive AI systems. A key goal is the establishment of a Centre of Excellence to cultivate AI talent across Africa, thereby strengthening regional digital sovereignty through comprehensive compliance frameworks and multilingual capabilities.
The venture will prioritize sovereign AI use cases such as multilingual citizen services in Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, and Pidgin, alongside secure digital identity verification and AI-driven document intelligence. Industry leaders have expressed strong support for this initiative. Prince Malik Ado-Ibrahim of Next Digital emphasized the importance of local relevance, stating, "At Next Digital, we're not just deploying AI — we're shaping it to reflect who we are as Nigerians and Africans." Giuseppe Porcelli, CEO of Lakeba Group, highlighted Nigeria as an ideal launchpad for building a truly African AI ecosystem, noting, "This is about building the AI infrastructure Africa deserves—secure, scalable, and sovereign." Demetrio Russo of AqlanX pointed to the alignment with Africa's digital sovereignty agenda, stressing the importance of "multilingual compliance and digital trust." Eren Sivasli of Agentic Dynamic expressed enthusiasm for applying their agent-based architecture collaboratively.
This collective vision aims to position Africa not merely as a consumer of AI, but as a proactive developer of its own AI ecosystems, built by Africans for African realities. AfricAI's establishment represents a significant step toward enhancing Africa's AI sovereignty and its regional digital infrastructure. The venture's focus on locally developed and precisely tailored AI solutions signifies a commitment to empowering the continent's future through technological self-reliance and innovation. This initiative aligns with Nigeria's own National AI Strategy, which aims to position the country as a leader in AI innovation in Africa, fostering economic diversification and inclusive growth through responsible and ethical AI development.