Wadhwani AI Global and Smart Africa have signed a memorandum of understanding to accelerate the development and adoption of artificial intelligence across Africa, with a focus on strengthening AI-enabled public systems throughout the continent and the broader Global South.
The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi by Shalina Wadhwani, co-founder of Wadhwani AI Global, and Lacina Koné, director general and CEO of Smart Africa.
Under the non-binding framework, the two organizations will work together to advance inclusive, context-driven AI applications across priority sectors including health, agriculture, education, financial services, government services and climate action. Key areas of collaboration include developing and scaling AI solutions to strengthen public systems, supporting AI readiness and governance frameworks across Smart Africa member states, establishing a digital public goods platform to share proven and adaptable solutions, building capacity among policymakers and technologists, and facilitating peer-to-peer learning between African governments and India’s AI ecosystem.
Wadhwani said the partnership is grounded in a shared conviction that AI must be designed with strong institutions, local context and long-term sustainability in mind. “This partnership reflects a shared commitment to building AI that strengthens public systems rather than bypassing them,” she said. “Africa and India face many of the same questions around scale, governance, and trust, and this collaboration creates space for honest, peer-to-peer learning across the Global South.”
Koné said the partnership offers Smart Africa’s member states the opportunity to learn from real-world experience in deploying AI within public systems. “Africa’s AI future will be shaped by collaboration, not imitation,” he said. “This partnership brings valuable experience in building AI within public systems and creates new opportunities for our member states to learn, adapt, and lead responsibly.”
Wadhwani AI Global has deployed AI solutions within public systems in India at a scale that has benefited more than 100 million people across education, agriculture, public health and service delivery. Smart Africa’s mandate is to drive the continent’s digital transformation through policy alignment, innovation and coordinated action among its member states.
Rather than prioritizing rapid deployment, the organizations said the partnership is designed to support responsible sequencing, ensuring AI systems are adopted in ways that are trusted, governable and capable of long-term impact. Over the coming months, the two organizations said they will work to identify priority opportunities, pilot collaborations and capacity-building initiatives aligned with national and regional development goals.
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