The Nairobi AI Forum 2026, held over two days on February 9th and 10th, has emerged as a pivotal moment for the future of artificial intelligence in Africa, unveiling a roadmap that promises millions of jobs, groundbreaking innovation, and enhanced technological sovereignty across Africa.
The forum, which brought together more than 500 participants from Africa, Europe, and the G7, outlined strategies to scale AI infrastructure and foster an inclusive ecosystem, positioning Africa as an emerging leader in the global AI economy. A big highlight was the announcement that 130 African AI innovators now have access to computing.
This initiative will enable many young startups to tackle pressing challenges such as climate resilience, food security, and the adoption of voice AI in local languages.
The forum also reinforced the spirit of cooperation embodied in the Italia-Africa Mattei Plan, a strategic framework aimed at inclusive growth and innovation. Italian Minister of Universities and Research, Senator Anna Maria Bernini, emphasized the central role of education, stating:
“Strengthening skills, training and research is a strategic choice to support innovation, technological sovereignty and inclusive progress in Africa. The Nairobi AI Forum highlights how joint efforts in higher education and knowledge exchange can build global and sustainable artificial intelligence that leaves no one behind.”
Anbu. Philip Tigo, Kenya’s Special Envoy for Technology, highlighted the importance of this change, adding: “Kenya and Italy, together with UNDP, are entering a decisive phase of their partnership, evolving beyond traditional aid and towards co-creating future economic capacity.”
“The intelligence economy will be defined by computing infrastructure, sovereign human capital, shared innovation, and the ability to connect research to industrial production.”
Additionally, Nairobi AI Forum 2026 announced the launch of the ambitious AI 10 Billion Initiative in partnership with the African Development Bank and private sector companies.
This bold program aims to foster AI entrepreneurship, mobilize up to US$10 billion to build foundational AI infrastructure across the continent, and create up to 45 million jobs by 2035.
Additionally, a new space-enabled AI partnership has been introduced to improve food security through geospatial data-based crop mapping, yield forecasting, and climate risk warnings, involving key companies such as the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture, the Kenya Space Agency, the Italian Space Agency, NASA Harvest, and Microsoft.
Cybersecurity also took center stage with the launch of the Cybersecurity Readiness Initiative led by Cyber 4.0 and AI Hub in partnership with Cisco Nairobi. The program is designed to embed Secure by Design principles in AI development and build a strong talent pipeline that safeguards Africa’s digital future.
Italian Ambassador Vincenzo del Monaco aptly summed it up: “The Nairobi AI Forum laid important foundations, distributed 1.5 million GPU hours, launched major initiatives and set a clear implementation runway ahead of the Italy-Africa Summit. This is not just a dialogue, but about concrete realization and shared growth.”
