Hi, welcome to Tech This Evening, an After-Work Tech Newsletter from Techparley Africa.
Top Story: Nigeria Builds AI Model That Speaks Its Local Languages – Why It Could Be Africa’s AI Breakthrough
At the GITEX technology summit in Abuja, Nigeria reaffirmed its ambition to become a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) with the unveiling of plans for a multilingual large language model (LLM) capable of processing indigenous languages.
The initiative, unveiled on Monday September 1, 2025, is spearheaded by Dr. Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy.
According to the Minister, unlike most AI models trained exclusively on English or other global languages, Nigeria’s LLM will incorporate five indigenous languages alongside accented English.
“When I came in, I was extremely bullish about the fact that the only way for Nigeria would be to have our own foundational model,” Tijani said at the panel session. “We opted to kick off a multilingual large language model for the country, covering about five of our languages. We’ve done significantly well in collecting the data.”
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On Startup Spotlight:
Egypt’s Intella Secures $12.5m to Expand Arabic AI Speech Technology Across MENA
Egypt’s Intella, a rising leader in Arabic speech intelligence, has just secured $12.5 million in an oversubscribed Series A funding round, boosting its mission to build advanced AI models tailored for Arabic dialects and accelerate expansion across the Middle East and North Africa.
The round, led by Prosus with participation from 500 Global, Wa’ed Ventures, Hala Ventures, Idrisi Ventures, and HearstLab, comes less than a year after the company secured $3.4 million in pre-Series A funding.
“From day one, our vision has been to bridge the gap between global AI advancements and the Arabic-speaking world,” said Nour AlTaher, Intella’s co-founder and CEO.
Founded in 2021 by Nour AlTaher and Omar Mansour, Intella has positioned itself as the MENA region’s foremost Arabic-first AI company.
It specializes in building tools that address the complex linguistic diversity of Arabic, spanning more than 25 dialects.
Yakub Abdulrasheed brings you all the details. Read here.
Also Read:
Neexa AI: How Uganda’s Ethan Bampeire Is Building a Funding Playbook for African Startups. Quadri Adejumo brings us the details, here.
Quote of the Day:
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is equivalent to magic.” – Arthur C. Clarke.
Thank you for joining me yet again this evening. Stay safe, and see you tomorrow.
Best, Quadri
