The Africa AI Language Model Project

AI Talent in Africa.

A data-driven map of AI talent demand, supply, and the gap between them across 48 African countries.

Explore the data in the dashboard, read the executive brief, or open the full 171-page report.

Initiative

African AI / LLM Initiative

Workstream

Talent

Source report

171 pages

By the numbers

0

AI job postings analysed across the continent

0+

African AI research publications in 2025

0+

African AI repositories on GitHub

0%

of AI demand sits in five markets

Strategic priorities

Seven priorities by 2030.

01

AI Infrastructure & Sovereign Compute

Localised cloud and GPU clusters that reduce dependence on foreign infrastructure and protect data sovereignty.

10 regional compute centres · subsidised GPU access for 5,000 developers / year

02

Industry–Academia Collaboration

Mandatory internships and applied placements that close the gap between graduate skills and job-ready talent.

50% of AI students complete industry internships by 2028 · 100 university partnerships

03

Practice-Based Training Ecosystems

Innovation hubs, accelerators and project-based learning teach the practical skills classrooms don't.

100,000 AI practitioners trained through innovation hubs by 2030

04

Strengthen Underrepresented Skill Clusters

Africa over-indexes on linguistic AI and under-invests in evaluation, MLOps and governance — the disciplines that make AI deployable at scale.

200% growth in evaluation, MLOps & governance specialists by 2030

05

Open-Source Ecosystems

Open-source communities build practical skills faster than any formal training programme.

10,000 African open-source contributors · 1,000 funded projects by 2030

06

Talent Retention & Diaspora Engagement

Brain drain to Europe and the Gulf is hollowing out senior expertise. Diaspora engagement and remote-work programmes can reverse it.

Reconnect 25% of African AI professionals working abroad by 2035

07

AI for African Challenges

Solutions for African agriculture, health, financial inclusion and local languages — so AI talent serves continental priorities first.

500 AI projects addressing African development challenges funded by 2030

Acknowledgements

Contributors and partners.

Survey respondents

Smartech GlobalMasakhane African Languages (KE)Novation City (TN)SDAS Research Group (MA)RalphAI (GH)Bloom Academy For AI (NG)Univ. of Pretoria · Deep Learning Indaba (ZA)BV Lab (MA)10 Academy (ET)DevisionX (EG)Chad Innovation Hub (TD)Save Your Wardrobe (TN)

GSMA G6 and ecosystem partners

Airtel
Axian
Ethio Telecom
MTN
Orange
Vodacom
Qhala
ToumAI

Start exploring.

The dashboard for the data, the brief for the synthesis, the full report for methodology and country-level detail.