Good morning!
Welcome to this week’s Africa AI News email digest!
Lots of AI news to share this week! Nigeria unveiled plans for a $1 billion AI-ready data centre project, Honeywell launched an AI platform at Dangote’s refinery with potential annual benefits of $60 million, Kenya secured funding to advance Konza’s smart city project, and Talent Nation raised funding to train 1 million African AI engineers.
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/Carrington
#Nigeria #datacentres - South African infrastructure investor INFRAGORA Global Capital plans to begin constructing two AI-ready data centres in Lagos and Delta State in Q2 2027, investing $650 million to $1 billion. The facilities will initially provide 60–70 megawatts of capacity, expandable to 100 megawatts, subject to financing. (The Ouut)
#SouthAfrica #cloud - Oxide Cloud Services, a Data Sciences Corporation subsidiary, has partnered with Digital Parks Africa to deploy a dedicated AI pod at its Samrand data centre. The facility provides 260kW of power, including up to 50kW per rack, supporting locally hosted sovereign AI services for enterprises. (ITWeb)
#Africa #cloud - Cassava Technologies has become an authorised reseller of Anthropic’s Claude models through Amazon Bedrock, enabling African organisations to access advanced AI capabilities including reasoning, code generation and multilingual processing. The agreement leverages Cassava’s continent-wide connectivity, cloud and data centre infrastructure to support wider enterprise AI adoption. (Cassava Technologies)
#Nigeria #energy - Honeywell Technologies has launched its Forge Plant Cognition industrial AI platform at Dangote’s Lekki refinery in Lagos, leveraging NVIDIA and Dell Technologies capabilities. The platform could generate $60 million annually in gross operational benefits at full capacity, equivalent to more than 29 cents per barrel, according to preliminary estimates. (Reuters)
#Africa #mining - Africa Critical Minerals Corporation (ACMC) has signed an MoU with US-based Scepter to deploy AI-powered resource intelligence for evaluating African critical minerals projects. The partnership will combine satellite, geological and geospatial data to identify mineral deposits, accelerate exploration and attract investment into Africa’s mining sector. (ITWeb Africa)
#Nigeria #skills - Talent Nation, co-founded by Andela’s Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, has secured undisclosed pre-seed funding co-led by Enza Capital and LocalGlobe. The startup aims to train and place 1 million African AI engineers globally within 10 years, having already attracted 63,000 applications and enrolled 1,400 fellows across nine campuses. (The Ouut)
#Egypt #venturecapital - Raya Holding has made its first investment through Raya Ventures, backing UK-based AI startup Pidima for an undisclosed amount. The fund targets pre-seed to Series A technology businesses, particularly in AI and fintech, supporting their expansion across the Middle East and Africa. (The Ouut)
#Egypt #logistics - Turuq Innovations has secured its first external investment from Den VC to strengthen its technology infrastructure and expand e-commerce fulfilment operations. The startup processes 50,000–100,000 orders monthly, has served over 300 merchants and plans to develop micro-fulfilment facilities while exploring software expansion into Saudi Arabia. (ITWeb Africa)
#Kenya #smartcities - Konza Technopolis Development Authority has signed a project preparation funding agreement with Kenya’s National Treasury to advance its cloud expansion and smart city facilities project. The funding will support feasibility studies, transaction advisory services and investment planning under a public-private partnership framework to attract private-sector investment. (TechAfrica News)
#Rwanda #skills - Rwanda’s Ministry of ICT and Innovation has signed an MoU with AI Skills and Compute Africa to strengthen AI skills development, research and innovation. The partnership aims to build local expertise, develop solutions tailored to national priorities and promote responsible adoption of emerging technologies across the country. (TechAfrica News)
#Africa #cybersecurity - An ITWeb and Veeam survey of 140 executives across 14 African countries found that 52% are confident in ransomware recovery, yet 32% lack recent or verified recovery tests. Only 14% have embedded AI into core operations. (ITWeb Africa)
#SouthAfrica #insurance - Naked Insurance has launched AI-powered pet insurance for cats and dogs, with accident cover starting at R40 and R55 monthly, respectively. The digital insurer uses AI to automate claims processing, with 60% of claims paid within 48 hours and its fastest payout completed in 12 minutes. (ITWeb)
[ This newsletter was both AI edited & human edited ]