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AfricAI Launches in Nigeria to Drive Local AI Innovation Forward

Artificial Intelligence

AfricAI Launches to Boost AI- Business Honor

Business Honor
19 August, 2025

AfricAI launches in Nigeria to build locally developed, secure AI solutions tailored for Africa’s growth and independence.

Four global tech companies—Lakeba Group (Australia), Next Digital (Nigeria), AqlanX (UAE), and Agentic Dynamic (Netherlands)—have partnered to introduce AfricAI, a new joint venture dedicated to developing enterprise-grade artificial intelligence (AI) solutions built in Africa for the African market. The project, starting its operations in Nigeria, will use existing national data centers and edge infrastructure to deploy AI solutions across strategic industries such as healthcare, digital identity, public administration, document automation, and enterprise services. The partners reiterate that AfricAI ensures the development of AI solutions locally with complete control over data, deployment, and decision-making, as opposed to outsourcing AI development.

AfricAI’s initial projects focus on “sovereign AI” use cases tailored to the continent’s unique needs. These include multilingual citizen services in languages such as Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, and Pidgin; secure digital identity verification; AI-driven document intelligence; and AI assistants designed to support human resources, education, and policy planning. Furthermore, AfricAI aims to set up a Center of Excellence in training more than 100 African AI experts by 2026. The training facility will equip the labor force to sustain further growth of AI solutions throughout Africa, including Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Rwanda. The business also focuses on inculcating robust cybersecurity practices, regulatory compliance, and ethical AI environments into all its solutions.

Industry leaders highlight AfricAI’s potential to accelerate Africa’s digital independence. Prince Malik Ado-Ibrahim, chairman of Next Digital, notes that Nigeria is setting a new standard in AI development. In the meantime, Giuseppe Porcelli, CEO of Lakeba Group, emphasizes the need for building safe, scalable AI infrastructure Africa is worthy of. Through its focus on AI systems that are designed and controlled locally, AfricAI aims to transform Africa from a consumer of AI into a world AI producer and make the continent a strategic hub of sovereign, inclusive, and context-aware AI technologies.