Google Announces $37 Million to Drive AI Development in Africa

News World

Published by Stephen Oluwadara at July 29, 2025

Google’s AI Plan for Africa

The centre will serve as a hub for learning, experimentation, and interdisciplinary collaboration for AI literacy. It will host technical workshops, research exchanges, and community events that bring together students, developers, entrepreneurs, artists, and civil society. These gatherings will explore how AI can be leveraged to address the needs of Africa.

“Africa is home to some of the most important and inspiring work in AI today,” said James Manyika, a senior vice president at the company, speaking during the launch of an “AI community centre” in Ghana’s capital, Accra.

Among the flagship initiatives unveiled is the AI Collaborative for Food Security, meant to connect researchers and non-profits to develop tools to improve early hunger detection, crop resilience, and decision-making for smallholder farmers.

The project to which Google.org gave $25 million aims to help African food systems withstand growing climate and economic shocks.

Simultaneously, Google.org awarded $3 million to the Masakhane Research Foundation, a pan-African collective that has been working on natural language processing tools for over 40 African languages.

The funding will support the development of datasets, translation systems, and speech recognition tools—technologies that are largely absent for most African languages but critical for inclusive access to digital services.

Furthermore, the global technology company will strengthen the research ecosystem by awarding $1 million each in research funding to two leading African academic institutions advancing AI.

They are the African Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AfriDSAI) at the University of Pretoria and the Wits MIND Institute. These grants will support graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, expanding local capacity to contribute to and shape global AI development.

Consolidating on Work Done Earlier

In addition, Google is helping Africans build artificial intelligence skills to shape and transform economies. So far, the tech company has trained over 6.5 million people across the continent in digital skills.

The organisation is now expanding its work with a $7 million contribution from Google.org to support AI education and safety programs in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. These programs, delivered in collaboration with academic and nonprofit partners, will focus on AI training and upskilling, cybersecurity, and online safety.

Google is also expanding access to digital skills, offering 100,000 fully-funded career certificate scholarships across Ghana. These fully funded, self-paced programs cover AI Essentials, Prompting Essentials, IT Support, Data Analytics, and Cybersecurity — helping learners develop in-demand skills and unlock new career opportunities.

AI has already been deployed by some farmers across the continent, including in nearby Nigeria, long home to a booming domestic tech industry. Local agri-tech companies have emerged to monitor soil conditions for crops, as well as temperature and humidity, on chicken farms.

Google is also set to launch a financing platform to back AI-driven startups in the agriculture, health, and education sectors.

Main Image: Ghana’s Minister for Communications, Digital Technology, and Innovations, Honourable Sam Nartey George at the opening of the AI Community Center in Accra