A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between the tech companies Lakeba Group and Next Digital (Nigeria), AqlanX (UAE), and Agentic Dynamic (Netherlands) to establish a , Joint Venture (named ), AfricAI.
AfricAI, a pioneering initiative to advance Africa’s AI sovereignty and regional digital infrastructure, focuses on deploying, commercializing, and localizing enterprise-grade AI solutions that are specifically tailored for African markets.
AfricAI will immediately concentrate on Nigeria as its main market, leveraging existing national data centers and edge infrastructure to deliver impactful AI applications in the fields of healthcare, digital identity, document automation, public administration, and enterprise services, according to a joint statement.
The joint venture aims to establish Africa as a leading global producer of locally developed, inclusive, and context-aware AI ecosystems built for local needs.
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The founding partners stated in the statement that “we are bringing together four complementary pillars: global IP, regional expertise, deployment excellence, and next-gen agentic AI architecture” to create an AI foundation that reflects African realities.
They claimed that AfricAI’s goal was to develop AI within Africa, for Africa, rather than outsourcing it to other countries.
A distributed, interoperable AI network is being developed by AfricAI across Africa. AfricAI uses localized applications in agriculture, urban planning, public services, and education to provide trusted, transparent AI infrastructure for African governments, businesses, and communities, they continued.
The JV intends to expand to Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Rwanda by 2026, train more than 100 regional AI professionals, and firmly establish data, deployment, and decision-making on the continent.
The strategic partnership’s goals include creating and deploying sovereign AI applications that are specifically designed for local market requirements in fields like digital identity, document automation, healthcare, education, and enterprise services.
In order to enable adaptable and explainable AI across industries like human resources, CRM, legal, and public policy, the joint venture is also expected to incorporate modular, agent-based AI architecture .
To ensure that AI workloads are hosted, processed, and governed locally in accordance with national data residency requirements, it will use existing Nigerian edge and cloud infrastructure.
In addition, it will establish a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in order to foster a regional talent pool in areas of AI development, cybersecurity, model tuning, and ethical deployment, according to the statement.
Scalable AI solutions that address national development objectives and market opportunities will be prioritized by AfricAI. Agentic AI assistants, multilingual health and citizen services, document intelligence and knowledge automation, and sovereign AI for identity and compliance are the first examples of initial deployments.
Prince Malik Ado-Ibrahim, the chairman of Next Digital, stated that the company was developing AI to reflect “who we are as Nigerians and Africans.”
More than just software, AfricaAI is all about. It’s about bringing our intelligence to the world, creating a future for us, and putting Africa on the map. We are prepared, Ado-Ibrahim continued, “and Nigeria will lead that movement.”
Giuseppe Porcelli, the CEO of Lakeba Group, stated that the company has long been at the forefront of global AI innovation.
“AfricAI represents a courageous next step for sovereign AI’s future, not just for Lakeba.” The ideal starting point for the creation of an authentic African AI ecosystem is Nigeria. We are proud to design the AI infrastructure Africa needs and deserves thanks to our flagship DoxAI platform and extensive capabilities in cybersecurity, automation, and orchestration, Porcelli said.
Localization, multilingual compliance, and digital trust are the foundation of our AI philosophy, according to the founder and CEO of AqlanX, Demetrio Russo.
AqlanX’s strategic intention is to influence Africa’s digital sovereignty agenda while fostering secure, AI-first innovation ecosystems built for scale, ethics, and inclusion, Russo said.
The company’s Chairman and CEO, Eren Sivasli, Sivasli, stated that the company was excited about its contribution to the project.
Source: Channels TV
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