Four global tech companies — Lakeba Group (Australia), Next Digital (Nigeria), AqlanX (UAE), and Agentic Dynamic (Netherlands) — have joined forces to launch AfricAI, a new joint venture dedicated to developing enterprise-grade artificial intelligence (AI) solutions built in Africa for African markets.

The initiative, formalized through a memorandum of understanding, will focus initially on Nigeria. Leveraging existing national data centers and edge infrastructure, AfricAI aims to deploy AI applications in healthcare, digital identity, public administration, document automation and enterprise services.

“AfricAI is not about outsourcing AI to Africa — it’s about building it here, with full control over data, deployment and decision-making,” the founding partners said in a joint statement.

Sovereign AI Focus
The venture’s first projects will prioritize sovereign AI use cases such as multilingual citizen services in Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo and Pidgin, secure digital identity verification, AI-powered document intelligence and AI assistants for HR, education and policy planning.

A Center of Excellence will be established to train more than 100 African AI professionals by 2026, supporting future expansion into Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Rwanda. The consortium has also committed to embedding cybersecurity, compliance and ethical AI frameworks into all solutions.

Industry Voices
Prince Malik Ado-Ibrahim, chairman of Nigeria’s Next Digital, said AfricAI would accelerate Africa’s digital independence: “With AfricAI, Nigeria is setting the pace.”

Giuseppe Porcelli, CEO of Lakeba Group, added: “This is about building the AI infrastructure Africa deserves — secure, scalable and sovereign.”

Continental Shift
AfricAI positions Africa as more than an AI consumer, aiming to transform it into a producer of sovereign, inclusive and context-aware AI ecosystems. By focusing on locally built, locally governed systems, the venture seeks to establish Africa as a strategic hub in the global AI landscape.