Will artificial intelligence master the challenge of understanding and vocalizing over two thousand indigenous African languages, with an estimated worth of 180 billion dollars at stake?

The projected value of Africa's internet economy by 2050, estimated at $712 billion, may be contingent on linguistic factors, determining whether growth promotes inclusivity or fosters exclusivity.

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2025 September 16 . 1:15 AM

2 min read

Exploring Africa's Financial and Linguistic Landscape: Is Artificial Intelligence Capable of... — Exploring Africa's Financial and Linguistic Landscape: Is Artificial Intelligence Capable of Mastering Over 2,000 Native Tongues?

Will artificial intelligence master the challenge of understanding and vocalizing over two thousand indigenous African languages, with an estimated worth of 180 billion dollars at stake?

In the rapidly evolving world of technology, a growing movement is emphasising the importance of building for Africa in African languages. This shift is crucial for tech companies to remain relevant and inclusive, as more than 3,000 languages worldwide, many of them African, could disappear by the year 2100 if they are not digitised, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Currently, only 0.02% of online content is in African languages. However, this is starting to change with innovative minds like William Ugbomeh, a Nigerian AI and healthtech innovator, who is working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, data science, and digital transformation.

AI has the potential to be utilised in various scenarios, from farming advice and learning to healthcare and government services, in languages like Wolof, Zulu, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, and many more. For instance, YorubaGPT, a chatbot trained on Yoruba text, preserves idioms, proverbs, and cultural nuance, serving over 50 million Yoruba speakers.

The digital economy in Africa is projected to reach $180 billion by 2025 and could surge to $712 billion by 2050. This growth represents millions of people being brought into the digital world, and the next 500 million Africans coming online will primarily use local languages. This makes Natural Language Processing (NLP) a key to new markets.

Africa's linguistic diversity can become a significant advantage in the AI era, potentially setting a global standard for inclusive technology. For example, South Africa's Lelapa AI launched InkúbaLM, the continent's first multilingual large language model, supporting Swahili, Yoruba, Hausa, isiXhosa, and isiZulu in 2024.

However, challenges remain. In Nigeria, civic technology tools for voter education often exclude Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo, while Swahili-speaking citizens in Kenya face barriers using digital platforms that default to English. To address these issues, governments in Africa should mandate public digital services to be available in indigenous languages.

Universities and communities should expand training, build datasets, and support open-source projects like Masakhane, which is building machine translation models for dozens of African language pairs. NLP can transform Africa's linguistic diversity into a competitive advantage in fintech, healthcare, education, and government services.

By prioritising the development of AI in African languages, Africa has the potential to lead the world in demonstrating that AI that speaks everyone's language can make technology more human, inclusive, and just. This approach is not just beneficial for Africa but could set a precedent for the entire global tech industry, ensuring that technology remains a tool for human progress and inclusivity.