• News
  • Tech
    • DisruptiveTECH
    • ConsumerTech
    • How To
    • TechTAINMENT
  • Business
    • Telecoms
    • Mobility
    • Environment
    • Travel
    • StartUPs
      • Chidiverse
    • TE Insights
    • Security
  • Partners
  • Economy
    • Finance
    • Fintech
    • Digital Assets
    • Personal Finance
    • Insurance
  • Features
    • IndustryINFLUENCERS
    • Guest Writer
    • EventDIARY
    • Editorial
    • Appointment
  • TECHECONOMY TV
  • Apply
  • TBS
  • BusinesSENSE For SMEs
Wednesday, October 1, 2025
  • Login
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
Tech | Business | Economy
  • News
  • Tech
    • DisruptiveTECH
    • ConsumerTech
    • How To
    • TechTAINMENT
  • Business
    • Telecoms
    • Mobility
    • Environment
    • Travel
    • StartUPs
      • Chidiverse
    • TE Insights
    • Security
  • Partners
  • Economy
    • Finance
    • Fintech
    • Digital Assets
    • Personal Finance
    • Insurance
  • Features
    • IndustryINFLUENCERS
    • Guest Writer
    • EventDIARY
    • Editorial
    • Appointment
  • TECHECONOMY TV
  • Apply
  • TBS
  • BusinesSENSE For SMEs
  • Chidiverse
  • News
  • Tech
    • DisruptiveTECH
    • ConsumerTech
    • How To
    • TechTAINMENT
  • Business
    • Telecoms
    • Mobility
    • Environment
    • Travel
    • StartUPs
      • Chidiverse
    • TE Insights
    • Security
  • Partners
  • Economy
    • Finance
    • Fintech
    • Digital Assets
    • Personal Finance
    • Insurance
  • Features
    • IndustryINFLUENCERS
    • Guest Writer
    • EventDIARY
    • Editorial
    • Appointment
  • TECHECONOMY TV
  • Apply
  • TBS
  • BusinesSENSE For SMEs
  • Chidiverse
No Result
View All Result
Tech | Business | Economy
No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Finance
  • StartUPs
  • TechTAINMENT
  • Guest Writer
  • Digital Assets
  • IndustryINFLUENCERS
  • Environment
  • Macro Monday
ADVERTISEMENT

MTN Group Backs Nigeria’s Call with Commitment to African Languages AI Research

Dr Bosun-Tijani Nigeria and Ralph Mupita MTN Group CEO

L-r: Dr Bosun-Tijani, minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy and Ralph Mupita, MTN Group CEO

MTN Group has taken up a call to action from Nigeria to support the collection of datasets of African languages.

These are required to develop the continent’s own large language models (LLM) to power AI-driven solutions for Africa’s 1.5 billion people, who otherwise risk being sidelined by the global AI ecosystem.

Speaking on ‘The Y’ello Chair Vodcast: Your link to the African continent’, Dr Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy said that to leapfrog AI in Africa, a collaborative public/private effort was urgently needed to fund the academic research into the continent’s many languages.

He challenged MTN Group, which has operations in 16 markets, 15 of them in Africa, to mobilise resources for this.

“We like these kinds of partnerships. Challenge accepted,” said Ralph Mupita, MTN Group President and CEO in the vodcast, which was filmed on the sidelines of the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York.

It was hosted by Angela Wamola, who is the head of sub-Saharan Africa for the GSMA mobile industry association.

The vodcast followed the launch of the Nigerian Atlas for Languages & AI at Scale (N-ATLAS). This is an open-source multilingual LLM designed to understand and generate Nigeria’s diverse voices, digitising and preserving the country’s linguistic richness and creating datasets for AI solutions.

More than 500 languages are spoken in Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country.

N-ATLAS is a public/private initiative of the government of Nigeria and Awarri Technologies.

The ATLAS framework is open and available to other African countries, providing a platform for innovation in local languages and in so doing, transform education, health, commerce and governance.

“We have to avoid the risk of Africans being a digital underclass,” Mupita said of the work to ensure that citizens didn’t feel excluded on the continent where there are more than 2 000 languages and most are poorly represented in the global AI ecosystem.

He said the digital economy was the “best bet” to ensure that citizens have dignity, hope and opportunity.

“The outcomes we want are that people are digitally included, economically included and that they have dignity. This dignity point for me is very important because poverty can include all sorts of indignity, but embracing technology should take all that away,” he said.

The Y’ello Chair Vodcast is a platform where leaders and changemakers share insights, challenge norms, and drive Africa’s digital future. For episode 2, see here.

Key Facts

  • 16 markets: MTN Group operates in 16 markets, 15 of them in Africa.
  • 500+ languages in Nigeria: Nigeria is Africa’s most linguistically diverse country.
  • 2,000+ languages in Africa: Most are poorly represented in AI models.
  • 1.5 billion people: Africa’s population risks exclusion from the benefits of AI.
  • N-ATLAS: Joint initiative between the Nigerian government and Awarri Technologies to digitise and preserve Nigerian languages.
0Shares

Tags: African languagesAwarri TechnologiesLarge Language ModelsLLMN-ATLAS
Joan Aimuengheuwa

Joan Aimuengheuwa

Joan thrives at helping individuals and businesses scale via storytelling...

Next Post
Facebook Launches Fan Challenges and Custom Badges

Facebook Launches Fan Challenges, Custom Badges to Boost Creator-Fan Engagement

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact Us

© 2025 TECHECONOMY.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Tech
    • DisruptiveTECH
    • ConsumerTech
    • How To
    • TechTAINMENT
  • Business
    • Telecoms
    • Mobility
    • Environment
    • Travel
    • StartUPs
      • Chidiverse
    • TE Insights
    • Security
  • Partners
  • Economy
    • Finance
    • Fintech
    • Digital Assets
    • Personal Finance
    • Insurance
  • Features
    • IndustryINFLUENCERS
    • Guest Writer
    • EventDIARY
    • Editorial
    • Appointment
  • TECHECONOMY TV
  • Apply
  • TBS
  • BusinesSENSE For SMEs

© 2025 TECHECONOMY.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.