The African Development Bank (AfDB) and technology giant Intel have recently solidified their partnership to provide AI skills to 3 million Africans and 30,000 government officials.
According to a statement released by the Bank, the collaboration aims to transform the African digital ecosystem. This alliance, formalized during the African Development Bank’s Annual Meetings in Nairobi, Kenya, seeks to cultivate a significant number of Africans proficient in Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) skills. The overarching goal is to accelerate growth and productivity and position Africans as active contributors to the 4IR, rather than just consumers.
Moreover, the training initiative aims to address socio-economic challenges and enhance productivity in key sectors such as agriculture, health, and education, thereby disrupting conventional growth cycles.
Ousmane Fall, Acting Director of Industrial and Trade Development at the African Development Bank, stressed the importance of digital skills for Africa’s youth, highlighting the rapidly evolving digital landscape and the projected growth of the youthful population. He emphasized the need for broad cooperation to develop skills on a large scale and at a rapid pace.
Speaking on behalf of Intel, Bienvenu Agbokponto Soglo, Director of Government Affairs Africa and IGA CTO Liaison, expressed Intel’s commitment to collaborating with African governments to make advanced technologies such as AI accessible to all. The collaboration aims to break down barriers related to geography, gender, and ethnicity, facilitating widespread participation in the digital economy.
Furthermore, the partnership intends to support African countries, regional economic communities, and continental organizations in crafting unified policy and regulatory frameworks in AI, 5G, Wi-Fi 6E, data, and cloud technologies.
Despite recent progress, African countries, including Nigeria, still face challenges in the AI domain. Nigeria recently launched its first Multilingual Large Language Model (LLM), signaling its ambition to lead AI development in Africa.
However, the region lacks the necessary talent and faces significant obstacles, including the high cost of AI training. According to the Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2024 by Stanford University, the costs of training AI models are escalating, with estimates reaching millions of dollars for companies like OpenAI and Google. For example, training costs for OpenAI’s GPT-4 were reportedly over $100 million, underscoring the substantial investment required in AI development.
