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GSMA Pleias launch African language AI model. (Image source: GSMA)

Pleias and the GSMA have introduced CommonLingua, a new open-source language identification model designed to significantly improve the processing of African language data at scale

The model forms part of the GSMA’s 'AI Language Models in Africa, by Africa, for Africa' initiative, which brings together partners working to bridge the persistent gap in African language representation in artificial intelligence systems.

With more than 2,000 living languages spoken across the continent, Africa presents a uniquely diverse linguistic landscape. However, many of these languages remain poorly represented in AI datasets, leading to reduced accuracy in language identification systems, especially when handling closely related languages or mixed-language content. Accurately identifying a language is a critical first step before building models in languages such as Swahili, Yoruba or Wolof, yet this stage has often proven unreliable for African datasets.

A major reason for this challenge lies in the design of existing language identification tools such as fastText, GlotLID and OpenLID, which were primarily trained on high-resource European and Asian languages. As a result, African-language content is frequently misclassified, often labelled incorrectly as English or French. Even advanced models show a notable decline in performance, with accuracy levels dropping by around 30 points when applied to African languages compared to widely used global languages.

CommonLingua is specifically developed to address this foundational limitation. On the CommonLID benchmark, it achieves an accuracy of 83% and a macro F1 score of 0.79, surpassing leading models by more than 10% points under similar testing conditions. Notably, it does so with a significantly smaller footprint, using approximately one three-hundredth of the parameters required by comparable systems. The model contains just 2 million parameters and is distributed as an 8 MB checkpoint, allowing efficient deployment across different environments. It can process around 20 text samples per second on a CPU and up to 3,000 texts per second on a single GPU.

The model supports a total of 334 languages, including 61 African languages spanning eight major language families. These include Bantu, Niger-Congo and West African, Afro-Asiatic and Semitic, Cushitic and Chadic, Berber, Nilo-Saharan, as well as various pidgins and creoles. By operating directly on UTF-8 byte sequences rather than relying on language-specific tokenisation, CommonLingua ensures consistent performance across multiple scripts such as Latin, Arabic, Ethiopic, N’Ko and Tifinagh.

“African languages are not an edge case. They are the working languages of hundreds of millions of people, and they deserve AI infrastructure built with the same care as any other language. CommonLingua is deliberately the first brick we are laying: you cannot curate what you cannot identify” said Pierre-Carl Langlais, co-founder and chief technology officer, Pleias.

The model has been trained entirely on open-licensed and public domain datasets compiled through the Common Corpus project. These sources include Wikipedia, OpenAlex, VOA Africa, WaxalNLP, Cultural Heritage collections and Pralekha, all released under permissive licensing frameworks.

Louis Powell, director of AI Initiatives at GSMA added, “Closing the gap in African-language AI is is fundamental to digital inclusion and unlocking economic opportunity. Progress has long been held back by the lack of foundational infrastructure, beginning with something as essential as language identification. CommonLingua addresses this critical gap, enabling the development of richer datasets and more representative AI systems at scale. Through our initiative, the GSMA is bringing partners together to move beyond fragmented efforts towards shared infrastructure that can power Africa’s digital ecosystem.”

The discussion around advancing African-language AI will continue at MWC26 Kigali, where GSMA and its partners will convene industry stakeholders to accelerate collaboration and innovation in this space.

Terra Industries expands into Ghana with Pax-2. (Image source: Terra Industries)

Terra Industries, a company focused on autonomous security systems designed to protect Africa and its critical infrastructure, has announced the construction of Pax-2, its second manufacturing facility

The new 34,000-square-foot drone production site in Accra will become Terra Industries’ main regional defense manufacturing hub for drone and counter-drone systems.

The announcement comes after the company secured US$34mn in funding to expand manufacturing capacity, speed up deployments, and strengthen engineering teams in Nigeria and allied African nations.

Pax-2 will be Terra’s second Pax Factory, following the 15,000-square-foot Pax-1 flagship site in Abuja. Once fully operational, Pax-2 is expected to become the largest drone factory in Africa, exceeding the scale of Pax-1. By 2028, the facility is projected to reach annual production capacity of 50,000 units across Terra’s aerial systems portfolio.

The Ghana operation is expected to create 120 engineering jobs and run on a continuous production schedule to meet increasing regional demand. Systems to be manufactured there include the Archer VTOL, a long-range surveillance and strike platform; the Iroko UAV, built for rapid tactical deployment; and Terra’s latest platform, Kama, a high-speed interceptor drone developed for counter-drone defense.

Kama is capable of speeds up to 300 km per hour and has been designed for large-scale production to meet growing demand for kinetic interception capabilities.

The expansion into Ghana supports Terra’s broader objective of developing Africa’s sovereign defense-industrial base. It also comes at a time when conflict dynamics are shifting across the Sahel and sub-Saharan Africa, where non-state actors are increasingly using modified commercial and fibre-optic drones as attack systems. Similar tactics seen in recent conflicts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe are driving demand for integrated defense solutions combining surveillance, electronic warfare and kinetic response.

“ The only way Africa can have lasting peace is by uniting to build sovereign defense, not by relying on foreign security architecture. We need to control our own destiny by building the tools and systems needed to protect ourselves. That's how this continent defeats terrorism. This is the beginning of that vision playing out more concretely, and we chose Ghana for Pax-2 because of its talent, strategic position, and political will to become a serious defense exporter and prove that this can be done at scale,” commented Nathan Nwachuku, co-founder and CEO of Terra Industries.

Construction of Pax-2 is currently in its final phase, with the facility expected to become fully operational by the end of June 2026.

Terra Industries said the Pax Factories network is central to its long-term Pax Africana vision, centred on achieving lasting peace through African security sovereignty and a future where the continent builds, deploys and controls its own defense technologies.

Vodacom Group highlighted renewable energy pathways and policy reforms to decarbonise Africa’s ICT sector

As climate pressures intensify and energy demand continues to rise, Africa faces the dual challenge of reducing carbon emissions while expanding access to reliable and affordable power that supports development, job creation and digital inclusion

However, many sectors, including telecommunications, healthcare, mining, logistics and manufacturing, remain heavily dependent on carbon-intensive and expensive diesel generators due to weak grid infrastructure and inconsistent electricity supply.

Addressing this issue at scale will require stronger multi-sector collaboration, coordinated efforts between public and private stakeholders, and reforms within energy systems to unlock investment in renewable and decentralised solutions.

Against this backdrop, Vodacom Group has released a new white paper titled Decarbonising Africa’s ICT Sector. The report offers insights into one of the continent’s fastest-growing industries, where expanding digital and network infrastructure is driving increased energy demand while the sector works to balance decarbonisation with ongoing economic and social development.

“Decarbonisation in Africa cannot be approached in isolation or through a single-sector lens,” said Ayman Essam, chief officer: external affairs at Vodacom Group. “While we have set an ambition to work towards net-zero emissions, progress depends on systemic change across the energy ecosystem. This includes policies that enable private sector participation, new financing models, and partnerships that can scale renewable energy solutions beyond individual organisations.”

The research highlights that although Africa is highly vulnerable to climate change, it continues to face significant energy-related challenges that hinder decarbonisation. Weak grid systems, financially constrained utilities, complex regulatory frameworks and unreliable power supply all contribute to the slow uptake of renewable energy. As a result, many industries, including telecommunications, continue to rely on diesel-powered generation to sustain operations.

To overcome these barriers, the white paper outlines several practical pathways to accelerate decarbonisation across the ICT sector. These include reforms to encourage greater private sector participation in energy markets, the adoption of renewable procurement models such as power purchase agreements, and the expansion of decentralised solutions like mini-grids to support remote network infrastructure.

Vodacom’s own progress demonstrates that meaningful emissions reductions are achievable even in energy-constrained environments. In the past financial year, the company matched 100% of its purchased grid electricity with renewable sources, reducing scope 2 market-based emissions to nearly zero across most of its operations. Since FY2020, it has cut scope 1 and 2 market-based greenhouse gas emissions by 77%, largely through improved energy efficiency and renewable procurement. Continued network optimisation has also enhanced efficiency, lowering the energy required to carry increasing data volumes from 1.55 MWh per terabyte in FY2020 to 0.36 MWh per terabyte in FY2025. Currently, 61% of Vodacom’s total scope 1 and 2 energy consumption is derived from renewable sources, including onsite generation, power purchase agreements and renewable energy certificates.

While mobile network operators are significant energy consumers, the report underscores their critical role in enabling Africa’s digital and economic growth, making their participation in the low-carbon transition both complex and essential.

Developed with technical support from the Carbon Trust, the research is based on sector analysis, case studies and interviews with stakeholders across the ICT and energy value chains, including utilities, technology providers, financial institutions and regulators.

“By sharing insights and identifying pathways forward, the report aims to support more coordinated action across the industry and take up the significant opportunity for Africa to build a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable digital economy,” concluded Essam.

IFC partners with Cashi to scale interoperable digital payments in Chad. (Image source: IFC)

A new partnership has been announced between International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank Group, and Cashi, a fintech firm focused on developing digital payment infrastructure across Africa, including in Chad

The collaboration will support interoperable payment solutions tailored for environments with limited connectivity.

Cashi’s platform enables individuals and businesses to send and receive money using mobile phones, point-of-sale devices, and SMS-based tools. By linking users with banks, telecom operators, and other financial institutions within a unified ecosystem, the solution simplifies everyday transactions in markets where cash usage remains prevalent and access to formal financial services is still constrained.

For small and medium-sized enterprises, the platform reduces reliance on physical cash, lowers transaction costs, and expands access to financial services, supporting business growth and job creation. In Chad, financial inclusion remains low, with only about 10–15% of adults holding a bank or mobile money account, compared to more than 30% across sub-Saharan Africa.

Tarneem Saeed, CEO of Cashi, said, “IFC’s upstream support allows us to adapt our proven, crisis-tested platform to the realities of central Africa. This partnership enables us to work closely with regulators and ecosystem partners, build trust with local merchants, and deliver practical financial tools that people can use in their daily lives, even in low-connectivity environments.”

“Expanding access to digital financial services through innovative, tailored solutions is critical in markets where smartphone penetration is low,” said Olivier Buyoya, IFC division director for West Africa. “This project underscores IFC's commitment to support accessible, low-tech, and resilient architecture solutions that boost access to finance for individuals and businesses in the Sahel more broadly.”

The initiative is aligned with the government’s Tchad Connexion 2030 strategy, which prioritises digitalisation and financial inclusion as key drivers of economic diversification, improved revenue mobilisation, and private sector growth in Chad. It also reflects IFC’s growing engagement in the Sahel region, with a focus on financial services, agribusiness, digital connectivity, and climate resilience.