I recently attended an event where someone was surprised by how much I had to share about the AI landscape on the continent. She admitted that when she thinks of Africa, she often assumes we are behind when it comes to technology. This misconception is a large part of why I started writing this; our AI story is different. We are building, shaping policy, contributing to research, and playing an active role in the global AI conversation. The highlighted stories today reflect the value that Africans and Africa as a whole bring.

P.S. If you enjoyed reading this, please pass it on and make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss the next drop.

This issue is being published later than intended, and AI moves quickly, so there is lots that has happened since; however, these are still stories worth paying closer attention to.

AI News

All about what’s new with AI in Africa - who’s building it, the policy shifts, the ethical questions.

p.s. If you’re based in Lagos and want to learn more about AI, check out my community partners at AI Lagos.

1. 🗨️Idris Elba & Google are investing $1 million in initiatives to expand access to AI tools for African creators. This was announced at the inaugural Google Africa Cloud summit in Johannesburg. The fund will power about 100k creators from Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya & Sierra Leone with access to Google’s Gemini and other digital tools.
   
   💭So what? The creator economy market globally is projected to reach $1.35 trillion by 2033. The creator economy in Africa is valued at between $3-5 billion, driven by the growing youth population. During the announcement, Idris Elba stated that the issue has never been talent but opportunity. This fund seeks to provide access to AI tools at a lower cost so creators can produce video, music, and other digital media more efficiently. Nigeria accounts for 40% of Africa’s creator economy, with South Africa at 22% and Kenya at 15%, indicating that most of the countries chosen were targeted for their active creator scenes.

   
   ✨Fike’s Edit: African creators are extremely talented and, despite structural challenges such as high data costs and bandwidth limitations, continue to produce great content. According to the Africa Creator Economy Report 2.0 2026, selling digital products and services makes up 25% of an African creator’s primary source of income, second only to brand partnerships and sponsorships. This is one area I could see AI helping creators increase productivity. It is not clear if this initiative includes access to Google’s Flow suite, which essentially provides a full creative suite which creators could tap into with AI where they may have needed a studio, potentially saving costs. If tools like this are also available, then it is an even stronger partnership for Google and a way to gain more access to the market by putting their tools in the hands of creators who naturally tend to share their resources and tooling with their communities. Overall, I hope that access to these tools means that creators can scale and also track their data to make choices that lead to better-paid opportunities, as well as start to build a scalable ecosystem. According to the Africa Creator Economy Report 2026, about six in ten creators earn less than $100 per month from their creative work.
   

2. 🗨️Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame is serving as a co-chair of the newly formed AI for Good Global Commission alongside the Salesforce CEO. The commission was formed earlier this month at the AI for Good Global Summit. The goal is to expand access, strengthen trust and accelerate impact. The commission has 44 founding members, including government officials, international organisations and private sector individuals
   
   💭So what? This places Africa at the centre of one of the most influential global stages for AI. The Commission is made up of 8 representatives from Africa, including MTN’s Ralph Mupita and WTO’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala alongside ministers from Nigeria, Namibia, Togo and the African Union. These key appointments signal a potential move for Africa from a passive participant in global AI conversations to a key decision-maker, although there is an open question on whether 8 of 44 seats provides enough leverage to establish this as a fact, something to watch as the commission gets started.
   
   ✨Fike’s Edit: AI is moving quickly, and currently there is a deep concentration of power that skews heavily to the West; however, the impacts of AI are global and therefore deserve a globally balanced solution. An African leader as co-chair of a commission that will likely be instrumental in shaping frameworks for future regulation, as well as commissioning projects, means that this is a key seat for any nation that wants to shape the future of AI to occupy. Rwanda has been making moves to position itself as a global innovator in responsible and inclusive AI. Earlier this year, they signed a three-year MOU with Anthropic to expand AI use in education, health, and government, including training and developer support. Initiatives like this, alongside their AI scaling hub, which has $17.5million in funding to drive AI innovation in key areas such as health, education and agriculture with an emphasis on localisation, show that Rwanda’s appointment is credible, as they have the institutions and the initiatives to inform their thinking and strategy they might propose.
   

3. 🗨️ Fikra API, a Kenyan startup, has launched an AI API built to power African developers, startups and businesses. The startup enables developers to query large language models the same way they would OpenAI or Anthropic but allows for local pricing and payments that are built for African markets.
   
   💭So what? Fikra’s API allows African developers to use models at a faster and cheaper rate. They have done this by fine-tuning open-source models and retraining them for local languages as well as compressing them for low-cost and low-latency inference (users can get responses quicker and faster). This is a clear use example for adapting AI technology for local contexts. Miano, the founder, told Disrupt that developers in major African cities before Fikra would need to query models such as GPT & Anthropic’s suite by paying $20, and whilst this may be reasonable in other parts of the world, in Africa this is a huge commitment. Fikra was built to primarily solve accessibility issues.
   
   ✨Fike’s Edit: Fikra is looking to close the accessibility gap with their custom models that consider local context, and it’s integrated local payment methods to avoid the high-friction user journey often associated with forex payments. From my research, it’s still early days, and so this is one to watch. In my view, Fikra is not trying to compete with the global incumbents (OpenAI & Anthropic) but to provide a cheaper, efficient and arguably more accessible alternative to developers on the continent.
   

4. 🗨️Nigeria is Africa’s leading nation in Responsible AI; the Global Index on Responsible AI 2026 has ranked Nigeria as 38th, up from 80th. Dr Bosun Tijani stated that this recognition is a testament to Nigeria’s deliberate efforts to build an AI ecosystem that is inclusive, responsible and aligned with our development priorities.
   
   💭So what? Moving from 80th to 38th to overtake both Kenya and Egypt shows that Nigeria has made a concerted effort to grow its AI strategy. The Index highlighted some key initiatives by Nigeria that have earned this upward trajectory, notably the 3 Million Technical Talent program targeted at upskilling and providing job opportunities for the nation’s youth. The Index also highlighted Nigeria as a ‘Bright Spot’, stating that it is one of the few nations thinking of preparing future generations as well as protecting them.
   
   ✨Fike’s Edit: As a Nigerian, seeing the nation get recognised for our progressive and responsible approach to AI development and deployment makes me very happy. The Global Index on Responsible AI highlighted the fact that the government has committed to training 3 million youth and ensuring they develop AI literacy, but has also amended the Data Act to ensure parental consent for processing any data relating to a child, showing that there is a good balance between upskilling talent and also prioritising protection.

On My Radar

A roundup of things I found online, not always about AI, not always connected, but always interesting.

Reading and writing about a different industry is my way of touching the proverbial grass. As a lover of Afrobeats, this article caught my attention. The article states that while Nigeria has huge cultural scale and influence, that hasn’t translated into its formal recorded music market size or its spending power. It goes on to explore audiences that drive cultural relevance and attention as commercial assets alongside the ones that actually spend. The economics of Nigeria’s recorded music industry is explored further, and the gap in cultural relevance and domestic monetisation is revealed, citing that the estimated recorded music revenue of Nigeria is only about $11.1 million, while South Africa accounted for more than three-quarters of Sub-Saharan Africa’s recorded music revenues in 2025. The article takes a deeper dive into the economics of the industry and how brands can learn to navigate the African consumer using the music industry as a case study. It also makes the case that the diaspora, Africa’s sixth region according to the

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African Union, is actually an extension of the cultural relevance seen on the continent but with oftentimes more purchasing power.

My community, The Kumu Circle, is a professional and personal development community for ambitious African women everywhere! We have just kicked off our AI Club for African women to go deeper, ask questions and build. If you’re an early-mid/senior professional woman on the continent or in the diaspora, then please sign up here for our AI & Future of Work session with Dr Ona Newton next week!

Fike Odulaja

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with a friend & leave a comment below.
Spotted something worth sharing, have any comments, story submissions or questions? Just hit reply; I would love to hear from you!

About ‘Fike’s Index’

I’m Fike, and this is my index: a curated look at the most interesting AI news out of Africa. This index is inspired by the ‘AI in Africa Tracker’ I built to keep up with AI’s impact on the continent: who’s building it, the policy shifts, the ethical questions, and how it is shaping work on the continent.

Here’s a link to the tracker. It updates every Friday.

This week’s AI business news got me thinking about the global picture, particularly about the AI supply chain and Africa’s position and competitiveness within it. Companies up and down the AI supply chain are cashing out big, but much to my dismay, I can’t see African organisations represented. The companies creating the hardware, like Nvidia, are now worth almost $5trillion, largely due to the AI boom, whilst Micron, a company that manufactures the memory and data storage solutions needed to process the amount of data AI needs, reported that its revenue more than quadrupled in the fiscal third quarter. Companies like Cassava Technologies, in collaboration with Nvidia, are building some of the crucial infrastructure required for Africa to have its own sovereign data storage. I can’t help thinking about a world in which we were included in this golden age of hardware.

This week’s issue focuses on how organisations in Africa are actually adding value with AI and bringing critical conversations closer to home. I have two polls for you at the end. Please vote!

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AI News

All about what’s new with AI in Africa - who’s building it, the policy shifts, the ethical questions.

p.s. If you’re based in Lagos and want to learn more about AI, check out my community partners at AI Lagos.

1. 🗨️Kenya will host the fourth summit on Responsible Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain(REAIM) in 2027. The summit gathers key stakeholders such as governments, tech companies and researchers to discuss and debate the military applications and implications of AI. In a circular released by Kenya’s Ministry of Defence, it noted that as AI continues to shape warfare, security and defence planning, there is a need to think about the responsible development and deployment of emerging technologies in this industry.
   
   💭So what? The African continent accounted for over 40% of global conflicts in 2025, so hosting the conversation on AI in the military domain on the continent seems like the right move. In 2024, Kenya co-hosted the second REAIM summit in Seoul, so moving on to host it signals continuity and relevance in an important discussion. As with all things AI, regional context is key, and the concerns of African governments around security and defence differ slightly: where Western and Eastern nations are typically focused on geopolitical rivalry, African nations are concerned with terrorism, border security and the risk of insurgency. The technologies used in this space have multiple uses, which African governments need to consider carefully. Facial recognition systems deployed for security reasons, for example, can also be used to monitor civilians. Given the current gaps in AI governance in this realm, African countries need to consider the balance between security and privacy.
   
   ✨Fike’s Edit: Remember last edition, I had a question around safety? This is a space where one of those critical discussions could happen. The fact that AI governance cannot keep up with the speed of the technology worries me. With reports that at least $2 billion has been spent across 11 African governments on surveillance technology built in China, able to recognise faces and monitor movements, the key questions of safety and privacy must be debated in forums such as this, where the host nation can steer the diplomatic agenda as well as curate the themes of the summit. I would like to see a deeper focus on the boundaries of the technology, where the data that powers these tools on the continent is processed and stored, as well as the protections in place, so that the dual-use application is not misused. Separately, learning how much is being spent on this surveillance tech, I wonder about the practical implications. Nigeria has reportedly spent the most on surveillance infrastructure, investing $470 million on ~10,000 smart cameras, yet there is a rising insurgency in various parts of the country.
   

2. 🗨️Mali’s second-largest telecoms provider, Moov Africa Malitel, has released a virtual AI Assistant and also doubled the speed of fibre optic connection for its customers at no extra cost.
   
   💭So what? In 2024, it was reported that mobile data in Sub-Saharan Africa cost 3.9% of monthly income, the highest rate globally. So, for a service provider, creating an AI Assistant to enhance customer experience is a great use case. Doubling broadband connectivity also means customers can access AI tools more reliably, a win-win for the company and its customers.
   
   ✨Fike’s Edit: Giving customers access to faster connectivity paired with AI tools is smart business. Customers are more likely to engage more with a more efficient and consistent experience, and at its best, these are the benefits of AI that we were promised. While AI is helping organisations create more seamless experiences by reducing outages in key regions by 20%, I would like to see more use cases for how AI can be used to drive down the cost of data for the customer. I personally need someone to explain to me why my 10GB of data in Lagos finishes faster than the same amount in London.
   

3. 🗨️Paystack’s experimental studio, TSG Labs, has launched an AI-powered checkout that enables agents to check out on behalf of users. The product currently works with select AI tools such as Claude, ChatGPT and OpenClaw and is being tested out with their Zap users in Nigeria first. This move is inspired by the changing interactions of how people are browsing the web, where agents are playing more and more of a role. Paystack is making what seems to be an early bet on agentic commerce becoming more popular.
   
   💭So what? Agentic commerce is redefining how online shopping is done. Reports from Worldpay show that of 8k people surveyed in several major economies (not including Africa), over 73% of them were happy to adopt agents in their shopping experience, with APAC regions showing even higher rates of adoption(~90%), and Western countries, including France and the UK, being a bit more cautious, with ~69% adoption in the UK. This signals a world where AI pre-empts and acts in a more forward-thinking manner, creating even more convenience and bringing order to what can sometimes feel chaotic in the world of online shopping. As this agent-driven commerce grows in popularity, companies need to ensure their sites are discoverable to agents and that their customers’ agents are not blocked from transacting on their behalf, whilst balancing safety and ensuring customers are protected from fraud risks and data leaks.
   
   ✨Fike’s Edit: I am glad to see Paystack moving into what is still a very experimental space early and probably first on the continent to do so. I would love for Paystack to publish a report and share data on the adoption of this AI-enabled checkout option, how customers find the experience, in what ways are people entrusting agents to shop for them, which demographic is adopting this more, and if it scales across the continent, do certain regions have faster adoption rates in comparison to others. I can see the benefits of letting an agent shop on my behalf; however, I will be cautious and would maybe use this with a preloaded card so I could limit the extent to which it could act.

Work Signals

Zooming in on how AI is changing the way we work

❓PwC has released its 2026 Jobs Barometer, which analysed over one billion online job advertisements across six continents. The conclusion is that AI is creating a two-track labour market: on one track, it is professionalising work by automating routine tasks and instead leaning more heavily on human expertise, judgement and creativity; on the other, On the other hand, it is democratising work, reducing the barriers to entry for complex tasks. The report also revealed that higher AI exposure is linked to headcount growth, not a decrease, with wage premiums for workers with AI skills continuing to surge higher, hitting 62%.

💭So What? The report offers data-backed insights into the current labour market amid further reports of layoffs and provides a helpful focus on what both leaders and workers can do to navigate it. It states that AI can deliver significant value through productivity improvements, but its greater value lies in its ability to redesign how companies operate.

✨Fike’s Edit: Winning is not just about technology but also about human skills. It is a great time to develop your leadership, hone your creativity, and train your judgement. The idea of professionalised roles, where AI use demands you to become more of an expert, versus democratised roles, where AI use requires you to be less of an expert, is a great way to think about how work is being redesigned. The report offers a helpful framework for individuals to predict the future of work: think about how AI is changing the level of human expertise required, how demand for this job and the supply for it change as AI develops, where human involvement is required in the loop, and how external forces impact the use of AI, either by constraining or expanding it. If you’ve been following this section over the last couple of weeks, nothing I am sharing here is groundbreaking, but I hope to ground our thinking around work and try to find practical tools to navigate this digital transformation.

On My Radar

A roundup of things I found online, not always about AI, not always connected, but always interesting.

I was very intrigued by Dunya Baradari’s post on LinkedIn; she carried out research on the concept of AI digital twins for (romantic) matchmaking. They built a 3D AI avatar that speaks in a volunteer’s cloned voice, drawing on their digital footprint to personalise, and then let people speed date the AI. Personally, I have very mixed feelings about this use case. As a romantic, I just think some things are better off not being ‘optimised’ - but with the way dating has changed over the years, perhaps this is the future? Once again, with everything being redefined, the work we now have to do is find the line. This use case reminds me of a Bible verse that says ‘Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial’. Yes, you might be able to get a ‘vibe check’, but if we are using digital footprints and chat conversations to create these twins (at least in this test version), how accurate is that? Every day we are told that ‘social media is not real life’. And there is nothing that beats an in-person meeting or even a phone call. I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts on this.

Leave a comment

Fike Odulaja

This newsletter was edited by Valery Nwuka.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with a friend & leave a comment below.
Spotted something worth sharing? Have any comments, story submissions or questions? Just hit reply; I would love to hear from you!

About ‘Fike’s Index’

I’m Fike, and this is my index: a curated look at the most interesting AI news out of Africa. This index is inspired by the ‘AI in Africa Tracker’ I built to keep up with AI’s impact on the continent: who’s building it, the policy shifts, the ethical questions, and how it is shaping work on the continent.

Here’s a link to the tracker. It updates every Friday.

Over the last two weeks, I had two separate experiences that made me think deeply about AI Safety in Africa.

I participated in a content hackathon where my team’s project revealed gaps in the biometric data privacy policies within the continent. AI is accelerating at a pace that policy cannot(?) necessarily keep up with, but where does this leave us while we try to close the gaps? I also got to speak to Nigeria’s Minister of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy and asked him more pointedly about his thoughts on the AI Safety space in Nigeria. This conversation left me with a question that I am yet to answer: Is a deep focus on AI Safety a privilege? If you have thoughts on this topic, then hit reply. I would love to hear from you.

I would love for you to read this week’s newsletter with AI Safety in mind.
Today’s issue touches on moves from the continent that I think are setting us up with a slight competitive edge.

AI News

All about what’s new with AI in Africa- if I missed a major story, please reply to this email and let me know.

p.s. If you’re based in Lagos and want to learn more about AI, then check out my community partners at AI Lagos.

1. ✔️Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the formation of a National AI Trust. It is being positioned as an independently resourced body of influential individuals who will lend their networks and capital to set Nigeria’s AI priorities and drive traction. The Minister of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy convened a curated list of stakeholders to discuss and debate the fine print of the trust to ensure it is formulated in its most effective and impactful way.
   
   
   💭So What? I got to learn more about this at a keynote conversation - Global Perspectives: AI, Institutions, and National Competitiveness - with Hon. Dr Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s Minister of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy, and the University of Warwick Business School. The formation of the trust is in line with the Minister's bullish stance on AI, and according to him is a way to ensure Nigeria remains competitive and relevant in this space. He gave insight into the Nigerian government's investment in digital infrastructure. Some examples include the BRIDGE Project (deploying over 90,000 km of fibre-optic cables) and the 3 Million Technical Talent (aimed at generating a pipeline of technical talent). His key message? If we, as Africans, do not participate in AI beyond just considering safety, the risk of AI widening inequality in Africa remains high.
   
   ✨Fike’s Edit I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Nigeria’s position in AI readiness has risen quickly since 2023. I’m curious about how the Minister’s dogged position has impacted this. While I am thrilled to see the government taking such an intentional and proactive stance towards this transformational technology, I am very curious to learn how the AI Trust will be implemented. How does an institution like this withstand potential political shifts? How do you ensure true representation of everyone who will be impacted? That said, starting with a stakeholder convening and bringing practitioners and policy experts together is a great first step in tackling these questions.
   

2. 🖥️Algeria inaugurated its National AI and Virtual Learning Centre as part of its plan to modernise its education system and strengthen its digital economy. This AI & Virtual learning centre is also targeting the formation of 20k startups by 2029.
   
   💭So What? African nations are thinking about how best to position themselves in the AI race. It is clear that they are aware of the power of upskilling and the collaboration between practitioners and researchers alike to provide creative and effective solutions to problems. This approach creates businesses that boost the economy and continue to give us our own competitive edge in the AI space.
   
   ✨Fike’s Edit: I am fully aligned with an education-first approach to AI. Those who have experience and can create or share context get better use out of Gen AI and Agentic AI tools, and so a focus on educating the masses on digital technology and AI tools is ideal. I also appreciate the holistic approach to AI Algeria is taking. Wherever possible, the builders and the researchers should get together!
   

3. 🎤AethexAI launched from stealth with a $3M pre-seed round to build a voice AI infrastructure built specifically for emerging markets, powered by Kora 1, AethexAI’s proprietary model that is designed for multiple accents, loud environments and diverse languages.
   
   💭So What? This is an evolving space, and it is clear that this startup is positioning itself to solve a real problem on the continent. Voice is still the primary way a lot of consumers on the continent interact, and the Western tools or tools built on Western data were not well equipped to handle diverse accents. From the pricing strategy to how the data is stored, it is a very clear example of building with local contexts in mind.

   
   ✨Fike’s Edit Firstly, I love to see more women building in AI, not just women focused on safety and policy, which I think we sometimes tend to overindex on. Secondly, I am very fascinated by the evolving voice space and the creation of small language models that focus on distinct languages or dialects. I will be tracking how this space progresses. I just have to say it, there is a glaring caution sign against the gaps in biometric data protection on the continent, and so with the rise in this technology, the regulators are under real pressure to keep up the pace.

Work Signals

Here, I zoom in on how AI is impacting our day-to-day

👷🏾‍♀️This article provides some nuance into the ever-changing Job Apocalypse debate. It poses a question on how AI will change the meaning and nature of work itself.

💭So What? The general discourse seems to be shifting away from the fully dystopian future the tech leaders were initially promising, but there is this broad agreement that something about how we work is going to fundamentally shift.

✨Fike’s Edit As both OpenAI and Anthropic have submitted initial paperwork signalling their ambition to go public in the near future, personally, I don’t find it all that surprising that the tune has shifted. Why would we want to invest in replacing ourselves? We need a better story! I am very interested in the nuance of what work will mean and the fundamental nature of it changing. The article asks a question: “How fulfilling is it to manage a swarm of AI agents?” As someone who really enjoys working in teams with other humans, that’s not work I would enjoy.

On My Radar

A roundup of things I found on the internet, not always about AI and not always related, but always interesting.

⚠️I attended an AI Safety and Risk Content Hackathon, and my team went a bit beyond the brief and created an interactive map which shows you what biometric data privacy laws exist or don’t exist within Africa. We explored questions like ‘who owns your voice if you’re African?’, what laws or policies seek to protect you from deepfakes? As I said, this technology is moving much faster than regulators can keep up with. How wide can the gap get?

📺I have recently been teased about only having AI on my brain, and I promise that is not the case! I have been watching Mindy Kaling’s new show, Not Suitable for Work on Disney+, which makes me think of what work might have looked like if I didn’t start my professional career in the middle of the pandemic.


See you in two weeks!

Fike Odulaja

This newsletter was edited by Valery Nwuka.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please make sure you’re subscribed, share it with a friend & leave a comment below. Let’s keep the conversation going.

If you have any further comments, story submissions or questions, just hit reply. I would love to hear from you!

Hi, I’m Fike, and this is my index: a curated look at the most interesting AI news out of Africa. This index is inspired by the ‘AI in Africa Tracker’ I built to keep up with AI’s impact on the continent: who’s building it, the policy shifts, the ethical questions, and how it is shaping work on the continent.

Readers Corner

This section is inspired by questions from you, the readers.

On how Africans view their data centres surge:

The question below is exactly why I started this newsletter: regional and local contexts matter a lot in the AI space, and this is a very clear example of where the global context is one thing, but as we take a closer look at home, we see different issues emerge.

✨Fike’s Edit: This is a very fair challenge. There are valid ethical and environmental concerns around data centres that require our attention, but unfortunately, due to structural issues in certain African countries, the main concern is energy security and the lack of presence; currently, Africa holds less than 2% of global data centre capacity. Data centres are enormous, constant power consumers, and many grids on the continent cannot sustain this pressure and competition with households and other industries. For context, in 2024, President Ruto of Kenya announced a $1billion Microsoft-G42 data centre, but in recent weeks, Ruto announced the suspension of this plan due to insufficient national power capacity. The data centre would require about a third of the country’s energy supply, which is not feasible. While this sheds light on the need to develop our overall capacity in this space, it provides an exciting opportunity for things like renewable minigrids for these data centres

AI News

All about what’s new with AI in Africa- if I missed a major story, please reply to this email and let me know.

p.s. If you’re based in Lagos and want to learn more about AI, then check out my community partners at AI Lagos.

1. 🗨️Nigeria launched GovGuide, an AI-powered chatbot designed to help citizens access information about public services more easily. The chatbot was built by Meta using their open-source Llama AI Models, Publica AI, a local AI company, the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy (FMCIDE) and the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR).

   
   💭So what? This is a large-scale public-sector AI project with a goal of creating a more accessible government. The chatbot can provide service in Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba and English. If executed properly, this could serve as a benchmark for public-sector AI projects and model how public-private partnerships can work effectively in the digital era.

   
   ✨Fike’s Edit: I am happy to see AI being deployed in a way that democratises government access. I believe that AI has the potential to close gaps in many ways, and for a government that typically feels out of reach to its constituents, this is a great first step in bridging the gap. I definitely could have used this when I was trying to figure out the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) process; it might have saved me a few trips to the Lagos Secretariat. On the plus side, the development of LLMs in African languages is once again welcome. Aside from closing the AI accessibility gap, other benefits support the preservation of African languages.

2. 📊Kasi Cloud launches West Africa’s first Hyperscale AI Ready Data Centre campus in Lagos. The first stage includes a 5.5-megawatt data hall, with plans to build two more. Kasi Cloud aims to build an infrastructure that supports Africa’s bid for greater data sovereignty

   
   💭So what? This feeds into the wider AI Sovereignty issue, where nations are prioritising owning most of their AI technology stack, including the infrastructure, models and compute resources. To enforce local regulation and ensure proper and safe use of citizens’ data, Africa must ensure that it has the infrastructure to back this up. This is one such move in that direction.
   

   ✨Fike’s Edit: Having our own access to this level of infrastructure on a cloud and AI level is extremely important in a tech climate that is starting to resemble its own version of the arms race. This means that developers can build cloud native products from the continent, and the cost of doing so significantly drops. This puts Lagos in a great position to service the entire West African region as a regional digital hub.
   

3. 📚AI Skills and Compute Africa Foundation (AISCA) launched in Kigali. The goal of the foundation is to provide programs that enable skills development and research to help bridge the current gap in Africa’s AI infrastructure. The foundation’s goal is to transition 1 million African youth into economic opportunities across the AI value chain.

   
   💭So What? Africa currently has the world’s youngest population, with more than 60% of the continent’s population under the age of 25. Investing at this stage is a step in the right direction toward securing the continent’s future through transformational technology.
   
   ✨Fike’s Edit: Whilst we are building the compute, data centres and hopefully resolving the energy inefficiencies that will enable AI sovereignty on the continent, I am also deeply interested in seeing how we put the appropriate safety guardrails and governance in place to ensure that the deployment and development of AI is beneficial en masse, especially when it comes to the education of the youth who make up majority of the population, AI skills are currently highly sought after and to ensure a globally competitive workforce this kind of work is necessary. All in all, this is an area of focus that I am passionate about and would love to see more investment in as well.

Work Signals

Here, I zoom in on how AI is impacting our day-to-day

❓In a recent interview, Sam Altman said: “I don’t think we’re going to have the kind of jobs apocalypse that some of the companies in our space advocate or talk about.”The OpenAI CEO has previously been on record as saying that AI will likely replace most of the jobs people do today.

💭So What? With the mass layoffs that are being attributed to AI across the globe, this is a huge statement coming from one of the most influential players in the space.

✨Fike’s Edit: My read is that AI’s impact on the workforce is evolving. One week, AI is completely replacing us, and we are all likely going to be on a universal basic income, and the next, AI is not that transformational, and we will still have work, it will just look different. I agree with the school of thought that thinks AI will largely transform the workforce, and perhaps some of the jobs of the future have not even been envisaged yet, as I said in the last issue, the question remains how we leverage AI with a reduced focus on what jobs are being cut. In Issue #1, we looked at an AI Job Risk calculator that tells you your risk score and protection score if you’ve used the calculator. I would love to hear from you.

On My Radar

A roundup of things I found on the internet, not always about AI and not always related, but always interesting.

💻This site surfaces really interesting essays that have been written over the years. If you’re like me and are always looking for something interesting to read, then this is for you. It’s called readsomethingwonderful, and I really like that.

📡I have touched on the AI Sovereignty goal a bit in this issue, but Anjola goes deeper into what sovereignty actually looks like in the African context, and this is a conversation that I believe needs to be had. Her framing of where Africa’s leverage could lie, as well as a case for it to be specific to countries, highlights Data Diversity as a strong leverage point. She also makes the case for African nations to position themselves as middle powers similar to the UK and Canada in the AI race.

Fike Odulaja

This newsletter was edited by Valery Nwuka.

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AI News

All about what’s new with AI in Africa- if I missed a major story, please reply to this email and let me know. p.s. If you’re based in Lagos and want to learn more about AI, then check out my community partners at AI Lagos.

1. 🏫 Ethiopia is opening its first-ever AI University next year! With investment in technology as one of their core strategies to increase the country’s global competitiveness, Ethiopia has made a bet on AI, starting with literacy and development as a priority.
   
   💭So What? AI literacy is a key part of the wider AI conversation, and Ethiopia is leaning into this and ensuring it controls the future of AI development in its nation. Starting with ensuring a sound understanding of this key technology means Ethiopia can build globally while leaning into local frameworks, an approach that is important when AI has been developed largely by Western and Eastern contexts.
   

   ✨Fike’s Edit: An institutional approach to AI is always welcome. In my opinion, all governments have a major responsibility for upskilling their youth, and Ethiopia’s precedent should serve as a lesson in how we approach technological waves in Africa.
   

2. ❌South Africa withdrew its draft National AI strategy …because of AI! They discovered their Draft National Artificial Intelligence Policy cited fictitious sources due to AI Hallucinations.
   
   💭So What? While the level of regulation AI ought to be subject to is a contentious point, what is clear is that oversight is required. This is a lesson in both the need for extensive oversight and education, as well as usage.
   

   ✨ Fike’s Edit: The irony of using AI incorrectly to create a policy that is supposed to structure the development and use of AI for an entire nation is a clear sign to never discount human intelligence. AI is still inspired by us, after all. South Africa could look to Ethiopia’s approach in centring AI literacy and building solid foundations for usage.

3. 🩺 This man turned his misdiagnosis into an AI-powered solution that will likely save millions of lives. Chris Okoh is building Monte Sereno, a full-stack healthcare operating system designed to connect every part of the care journey. His goal is not to replace doctors but to help reduce the margin of error using their AI agent called StarPilot, which sits alongside doctors and patients in consultations to help analyse symptoms and search global databases for more accurate diagnoses.
   
   💭So What? AI is reshaping the healthcare sector due to its ability to analyse large data sets and find patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed. The World Economic Forum has noted diagnostics as one of the most promising areas of AI in healthcare, and this is what Monte Sereno’s tool leans into.

   
   ✨ Fike’s Edit: If there is one area where your data is being collected and centralised, it's probably healthcare. The future of medicine should be personalised. Our bodies are so different, and if someone is building the tech to enable more accurate diagnosis and treatment on the continent, then this is one thing we should all be paying attention to.
   On the other hand, the risk of data leaks is real and how will access to this data be safeguarded?
   What do the lawyers and policy experts amongst us think?
   

Work Signals

Here, I zoom in on how AI is impacting our day-to-day

🧮Kim Kiyingi, a Ugandan HR Professional, who founded InspireAmbitions, created a cool AI Job Risk Calculator that tells you your risk score and protection score. It also predicts a displacement year based on the daily tasks you currently do in your role.

💭So What? This calculator highlights that a productive approach to how AI is shaping the future of work is to think about what tasks in your role are most susceptible to AI versus what currently requires the human-level critical analysis, empathy and social cues. Kiyingi, in an interview with Weetracker, noted that a bank teller in Lagos faces 74% personal risk even though the national aggregate for job displacement is low. This is because a lot of the workers in Nigeria are in agriculture and informal sectors, which are still largely unimpacted by AI. Showing that economic and cultural contexts matter in this conversation.

✨ Fike’s Edit: The question on everyone’s minds has been what Jobs will AI replace, but this podcast argues that a better question is what new jobs will be created. They also talk about the seven categories of Human Premium, where, even though AI could do the job, the preference would be a human. Like I said before, thinking more about what AI can’t do and, in this case, what new roles are potentially on the horizon, is a better use of everyone’s time in my opinion.

On My Radar

A roundup of things I found on the internet, not always about AI and not always related, but always interesting.

📱iOS 27 is bringing the most interesting update imo till date- Apple will now let users choose between various AI models. I wonder what has inspired this strategy, it’s giving if you can’t beat them, make them compete?
Leaning into partnerships when you can’t build your own is typically a very successful strategy. I am interested in seeing how people use this and how long it lasts.

🤷🏾‍♀️ Avoiding Stupidity is Easier than Seeking Brilliance -the writer shares some anecdotes about why avoiding mistakes or stupidity is a better strategy for amateurs. If you’re operating within your circle of competence, you can go for the win; if you’re not, it’s better to actively avoid mistakes. Reading this reinforced my belief that you’re better off playing to your strengths than trying to constantly elevate your weak points.
What do you think?

See you in two weeks!

Fike Odulaja

This newsletter was edited by Valery Nwuka.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with a friend & leave a comment below.
If you have any comments, story submissions or questions, just hit reply!