The Masakhane African Languages Hub has issued a request for solutions to address the significant Artificial Intelligence (AI) data gap in African languages.
The Hub's call for proposals covers three main areas. Automatic speech recognition, culturally grounded voice data for 18 African languages, with a focus on gender balance and contextual authenticity.
Non-profits, social enterprises, and research organisations with an African base or presence are all eligible. Applications close on January 25, 2026.
The organisation is also urging researchers, linguists, start-ups, technologists and community groups across Africa to create high-quality, inclusive community driven datasets for 50 languages.
The hub stated that proposals must outline how they aim to build and share these datasets to enable AI tools in speech, translation, and education.
It emphasised that Africa’s more than 2,000 languages are virtually absent from the global digital landscape to a point where not even the top 34 internet languages are African, this shows a huge gap between emerging technologies and accurate AI systems.
According to Masakhane, the ultimate goal is to empower one billion Africans by 2029 with locally relevant AI tools and resources, unlocking opportunities for economic development, local innovation, and the preservation of Africa's linguistic heritage.
The project is supported by Google.org, Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office , International Development Research Centre and the Gates Foundation.
Chenai Chair, director of the Masakhane African Languages Hub said: “We are committed to championing African-led innovation that ensures AI reflects the continent's rich linguistic and cultural diversity."
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