Hi Ayodele here,

Over the past week, Africa saw major progress in AI capacity building. Google rolled out a continent-wide AI skilling framework, committed new funding to Nigeria’s talent and safety programs, and Zambia pushed ahead with its national AI strategy through a conference focused on practical impact. Together, these efforts highlight a growing focus on readiness, responsibility, and long-term innovation.

Let us get into it. In this edition:

• Google launches AI Skilling Blueprint to train Africa’s future workforce

• Google commits $2million to boost AI talent and online safety in Nigeria

• Zambia advances AI strategy with national conference on innovation and development

Around Africa

Google launches AI Skilling Blueprint to train Africa’s future workforce

Google has launched a new “AI Skilling Blueprint” aimed at helping African governments build a workforce ready for the AI era. The blueprint calls for training three groups: general population (AI learners), professionals and SMEs (AI implementers), and developers/researchers (AI innovators).

It emphasises Ethics, Inclusivity and Effective Usage as core principles for AI education across the continent. Google is backing this with funding and support for public data infrastructure, including $2.25 million to modernise national statistics offices.

Social-impact organisations like FATE Foundation, African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), JA Africa and CyberSafe Foundation will embed AI curricula into universities and promote digital safety and literacy. The initiative is positioned as a long-term commitment to close skills gaps and build a sustainable AI ecosystem across Africa.

Why it matters: 

This blueprint could fundamentally change the technology landscape in Africa by ensuring that AI adoption is not just concentrated among a few, but accessible broadly, from students to professionals and innovators. By combining skill development with robust data infrastructure and ethical guardrails, it helps reduce the risk of widening inequalities or unsafe digital deployment. 

Google commits $2million to boost AI talent and online safety in Nigeria

Google pledged $2million to accelerate AI development and online safety efforts in Nigeria. The funding will be channelled to five specialist organisations working on AI upskilling, innovation support, and cybersecurity.

This effort aligns with Nigeria’s broader National AI Strategy and aims to support the creation of one million digital jobs. The investment targets both training new AI talent and strengthening internet safety by expanding programmes like “Be Internet Awesome” for children. Past Google-funded initiatives in Nigeria, including the 2023 Skills Sprint, have already trained tens of thousands in tech skills, with many moving into jobs or starting businesses. Government and private-sector leaders described the funding as a pivotal investment in Nigeria’s future as a leading African tech hub.

Why it matters 

The ₦3 billion commitment signals a strong belief in Nigeria’s potential to lead Africa’s AI transformation. By investing in both skills and online safety, it recognises that digital growth must be inclusive and secure. Scaling up talent and protecting digital spaces could position Nigeria as a centre for innovation and job creation, attracting global attention and investment, and helping to close the technological divide in Africa.

Zambia advances AI strategy with national conference on innovation and development

IndabaX Zambia 2025 convened leading AI experts, innovators and policymakers in Lusaka to discuss the future of AI under the country’s National AI Strategy (2024–2026). The conference highlighted real-world AI applications across sectors: healthcare (improving maternal outcomes), mining (discovering new copper deposits), and agriculture (boosting crop yields by 20–30%).  

The national strategy rests on six pillars,  including policy and regulation, human capital development, infrastructure, research and innovation, sectoral integration, and international partnerships. A strong emphasis was placed on responsible AI adoption: fairness, transparency, accountability, data protection and gender inclusion. The conference served as a launchpad to translate research into practical solutions, foster commercialization of AI, and build local capacity for long-term development.

Why it matters: 

Zambia’s approach shows that AI is not just a tech trend but a tool for socioeconomic development when guided by strategy and ethical principles. By using AI to tackle concrete challenges in health, agriculture and mining, the country could accelerate development, improve livelihoods, and build resilience.

Around the World

Yahoo Sports launches AI-powered game breakdowns

Yahoo Sports is rolling out a new AI feature called Game Breakdowns that offers real-time NFL recaps. It delivers full game summaries, highlights of key plays, and prompts for deeper analysis or follow-up questions. The tool combines statistical data, user reactions, and win-probability shifts to surface the most relevant storytelling angles. The feature is currently in beta for Yahoo Fantasy Plus subscribers. 

AI makes its mark in 2025’s top apps at Apple

In its 2025 App Store Awards, Apple honored several apps that leverage AI under the hood rather than naming a dedicated AI chatbot as the overall winner. The top iPhone app, Tiimo, uses AI to turn to-do lists into visual, time-mapped plans. Other winners include video editor Detail and fitness app Strava, both integrating AI features for editing and workout insights respectively. This shows AI is now embedded quietly but meaningfully in mainstream productivity, creative, and wellness tools.

Mistral AI pushes open-weight AI with new model lineup

French startup Mistral AI has launched its new model family, including a powerful frontier model and several smaller, efficient ones. The flagship model supports multimodal and multilingual capabilities while the smaller ones are optimized for cost-efficient deployment, even on modest hardware. The company claims these open-weight models can deliver performance comparable to closed-source rivals once customized, giving businesses and developers more flexibility. The move could broaden access to advanced AI beyond just big tech. 

Around the Web - Top Picks

• Africa at the Digital Crossroads: Why Ghana Must Lead a Sovereign AI Future

  The article argues that Africa’s digital future depends on controlling its own data and AI infrastructure. It highlights Ghana as a potential leader because of its early policies and local AI efforts. The piece warns that depending on foreign companies for cloud, cables and software threatens true sovereignty. It calls for investment in local talent, infrastructure and governance so AI benefits stay within Africa.

  Read the full piece: Africa at the Digital Crossroads

• Robbing Peter: The Hidden Labor behind AI systems

  This piece reveals the hidden human labor behind AI systems. It explains that many African workers perform data labeling and content moderation for very low pay. Their work is essential to training advanced models but often emotionally difficult and unrecognized. The article urges fairer compensation and better protection for these workers.

  Read the full piece: Robbing Peter

Seen This?

Upcoming African AI Events

African Startup Conference 2025: Tech & Startup Conference (with AI track)
Date: December 6–8, 2025
Location: Algiers, Algeria
Theme: A general tech and startup conference that includes AI among its focus areas, offering networking, panels, and investor‑startup–policy‑maker interactions relevant for AI entrepreneurs and innovators.
Link: African Startup Conference 2025

AAIET 2025: International Conference on Applied Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies
Dates: December 15–16, 2025
Location: Ziane Achour University of Djelfa, Algeria (Hybrid)
Theme:Showcasing research and innovation in AI, this conference explores emerging technologies, AI applications across industries, and academic-industry collaboration. Sessions include technical papers, workshops, and networking with AI professionals across Africa.
Link: AAIET 2025

APAIC 2025: Africa AI Leadership & Policy Summit
Date: December 21–25, 2025
Location: Mombasa, Kenya
Theme: Bringing together digital leaders, regulators, finance institutions, universities, and innovation heads to discuss data standards, cyber security, policy, AI infrastructure, and AI applications in public services, healthcare, agriculture and finance
Link: APAIC 2025

International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Data Engineering (ICCIDE‑2025)
Date: December 24, 2025
Location: Abuja, Nigeria
Focus: Computational intelligence, data engineering and related research and an opportunity for AI/data‑science oriented work.
Link: ICCIDE‑2025

AI Job Opportunities

• Hepdex - AI Engineer, Nigeria.

• Dot digital - ML Engineer, South Africa

• Parvana - Data Engineer, South Africa 

• BETSoftware - Junior Data Engineer, South Africa 

• United Nations Office - Data Analyst, Kenya

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