African Ministers Adopt Connectivity Pact

African telecommunications ministers have adopted a continent-wide declaration on meaningful connectivity and launched a pan-African artificial intelligence initiative aimed at developing AI models for African languages, marking a coordinated push to expand digital inclusion and locally relevant digital services.

The twin announcements were made during the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) Conference of Plenipotentiaries (CPL-26) in Abuja, where ministers and heads of delegation endorsed the Abuja Ministerial Declaration on Meaningful Connectivity for Africa and unveiled ATLAS Umoja AI, a collaborative platform designed to accelerate the development of African-language AI.

The declaration commits governments to promoting policies that expand meaningful connectivity through resilient digital infrastructure, technology-neutral regulation, digital inclusion and locally relevant digital services. It also calls for stronger collaboration between governments, regulators, industry and development partners to close Africa’s connectivity and digital usage gaps.

The GSMA welcomed the declaration, with Caroline Mbugua, Senior Director for Public Policy in Africa saying it demonstrates that African governments share “a common vision for delivering meaningful connectivity” through evidence-based and investment-friendly policies.

Hosted by Nigeria through the Nigerian Communications Commission, the plenipotentiary conference is the ATU’s highest decision-making body. Opening the conference, Dr. Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, urged African countries to strengthen collaboration ahead of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference later this year in Doha, where the continent hopes to present unified positions on global digital governance.

Pan-African AI for African languages

The conference also saw the launch of ATLAS Umoja AI, a partnership involving the governments of Benin, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria and Togo, together with the GSMA and African technology companies Awarri, Zindi, Pawa AI and Mozisha.

The initiative seeks to develop artificial intelligence models that better understand African languages by pooling datasets, technical expertise and research across countries.

ATLAS Umoja AI builds on N-ATLAS (Nigerian Atlas for Languages and AI at Scale), the open-source multilingual large language model launched by Nigeria in 2025 as Africa’s first government-backed open-source LLM.

Tijani said the expansion reflects the need to strengthen Africa’s digital sovereignty while creating opportunities in education, innovation and economic growth.

He noted that although Africa is home to nearly one-third of the world’s languages, fewer than two percent are meaningfully supported by modern AI systems.

Silas Adekunle, Awarri Founder and Chief Executive said the initiative builds on lessons learned from N-ATLAS, demonstrating what can be achieved by combining African language data, local talent and practical AI applications.

Celina Lee, Zindi Chief Executive said the partnership will ensure African language AI is developed by Africans for African communities.

The initiative also aligns with the recently established AI for Good Global Commission, with ministers from Nigeria, Namibia and Togo committing to support its implementation.

Closing Africa’s digital usage gap

Officials said the AI initiative complements the connectivity declaration by addressing one of Africa’s biggest digital challenges: the usage gap, where millions of people live within broadband coverage but remain offline.

According to Angela Wamola, GSMA Head of Sub-Saharan Africa, providing AI-powered services and digital content in local languages can help improve digital literacy and make the internet more relevant to African users, encouraging greater adoption.

Alongside the ministerial sessions, the ATU-GSMA African ICT Regulatory Leaders’ Forum examined policy issues including spectrum management, regional regulatory harmonisation and technology-neutral approaches to satellite licensing as governments prepare for increasing deployment of low-Earth orbit satellite services across the continent.

Attention will now turn to how many additional ATU member states join ATLAS Umoja AI, the language models and applications developed through the platform, and whether the policy positions agreed in Abuja translate into coordinated African representation at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Doha later this year.