June 2026 – Africa is home to more than 2,000 languages, yet only about 42 have meaningful support in today’s large language models. A 2025 review revealed that just three scripts — Latin, Arabic, and Ge’ez — are broadly covered, leaving nearly 88% of African languages severely underrepresented in computational linguistics.
This lack of representation has major consequences for digital advisory tools reaching farmers, patients, and small business owners, where language support often determines whether technology is effective or inaccessible.
To close this gap, LINGUA Africa has announced a new $250,000 funding program to support projects that build open data, models, and applications for African languages. The initiative aims to reach one billion Africans with locally relevant AI tools by 2029.
The program offers grants for data creation, model and tool development, and sectoral applications in priority areas such as agriculture, education, healthcare, financial inclusion, and civic services. All supported projects must contribute openly licensed resources, ensuring long‑term accessibility and impact.
Eligible applicants include nonprofits, universities, research institutes, startups, cultural organizations, and consortia working in the public interest. Organizations outside Africa may also apply if they demonstrate meaningful partnerships with Africa‑based institutions or communities.
Beyond cash grants, selected projects will receive Azure and Google Cloud credits along with technical collaboration from the Microsoft AI for Good Lab, strengthening the ecosystem for African language AI.
By investing in open resources and real‑world applications, LINGUA Africa is positioning local languages at the center of the continent’s digital transformation, ensuring that AI tools reflect Africa’s linguistic diversity and cultural richness.
