Adesina proposes a $10 billion AI fund for Africa

Akinwumi Adesina, the former president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), has proposed a $10 billion African Artificial Intelligence Frontier Technology Fund. He made the proposal on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, in his keynote address at the Oxford Global Think Tank Leadership Conference in Abuja, Nigeria, themed "Leadership for a Prosperous Future".

The fund would anchor a much larger ambition: mobilising $50 billion over the next 10 years for Africa's scientific, technological and industrial development. Under the proposed structure, $10 billion would come from the fund itself, $15 billion from African governments, $15 billion from multilateral and African development finance institutions, and $10 billion from private investors, philanthropic partners and the global technology industry.

Adesina says the fund would finance research, critical infrastructure, frontier technologies and African technology enterprises. To coordinate the effort, he proposed a Coalition for Financing AI for Africa, bringing together the World Bank, the AfDB, other development banks, governments, institutional investors and technology companies.

His central message was blunt: Africa must decide whether it will remain a market for technologies developed elsewhere, or become a creator, owner and exporter of the technologies transforming the global economy. "Africa must not simply be a market for the AI revolution. We must be among its architects," he said.

According to Adesina, the African Development Bank estimates that generative AI could add between $61 billion and $103 billion in economic value to Africa. But he warned that this potential will not arrive automatically without investment and coordinated action.

He also named the big constraints: electricity, affordable connectivity, computing capacity, secure digital systems and high-quality data. He pointed to Mission 300, the AfDB–World Bank partnership aiming to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030, saying more than 50 million people have already been connected.

Adesina further urged African governments to consider appointing ministers dedicated to artificial intelligence, to coordinate policy across education, research, infrastructure, industry, investment and public services. He said the African Union's continental AI Strategy, adopted in July 2024, provides a framework — but the moment now is for implementation, not policy commitments alone.

One thing to be clear about: this is a proposal, not a fund that already exists. No launch date has been announced, and no list of first beneficiary countries. But coming from the man who led Africa's largest development bank, it shows where the debate is heading: from asking for technology to building it.

What does this mean for you? For a Swahili-speaking reader, this is not about distant money in Abuja — it is about who will build the AI tools you will use tomorrow. If Africa keeps buying technology from outside, those tools will be built on other places' data, languages and needs — and Swahili risks being left behind again. If a proposal like this succeeds, it could fund African research, training and companies building AI for African languages and realities.

Do not wait for this fund: it is a proposal, and even if launched, results will take years. But you can watch its signals — whether your country's government appoints an AI minister or strategy, whether universities open AI programmes, and whether African companies get funding to build tools in Swahili. And if you are a student, teacher, entrepreneur or developer, Adesina's message speaks to you directly: skills in mathematics, science, data and engineering are named as the foundation of these opportunities.