Johannesburg: AfricUpdate – News Desk
MTN Group has committed to supporting Nigeria’s call to advance the collection of African language datasets that will be used to develop the continent’s own large language models (LLMs). These models are seen as essential to building AI-driven solutions tailored to Africa’s 1.5 billion people, helping prevent exclusion from the global AI ecosystem.
The appeal was made during The Y’ello Chair Vodcast: Your Link to the African Continent, where Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy emphasized the need for urgent collaboration between government and the private sector to fund research on Africa’s linguistic diversity. MTN Group, which operates in 16 markets across Africa and the Middle East, confirmed its readiness to mobilize resources to drive this initiative forward.
The discussion followed the launch of the Nigerian Atlas for Languages & AI at Scale (N-ATLAS), an open-source multilingual LLM designed to digitize and preserve Nigeria’s linguistic heritage. Nigeria, home to over 500 languages, is leading the effort in partnership with Awarri Technologies. The ATLAS framework has been designed for use across the continent, providing a platform for AI innovation in local languages that can transform education, healthcare, commerce, and governance.
With more than 2,000 languages spoken across Africa, most remain underrepresented in AI. By collecting and structuring datasets for these languages, stakeholders aim to ensure that African citizens are not left behind in the digital era. The digital economy is positioned as a key driver for inclusion, providing opportunities for citizens to participate meaningfully in society while fostering dignity and reducing poverty through technology.
