India, Kenya, and Italy forge trilateral AI pact for Africa

A new three-country tech pact is aiming to wire sovereign AI into Africa at scale instead of leaving it stuck in pilot mode.

Trilateral AI pact across Africa

• India, Kenya, and Italy formed a strategic AI partnership.
• Deal grew out of the AI Impact Summit 2026.
• EkStep Foundation co-leads alongside Kenya’s ICT directorate.
• Italy’s AI Hub for Sustainable Development is central to the setup.

Shift from pilots to scale

• UNDP is backing the push toward large-scale AI diffusion.
• Partners want scalable sovereign pathways, not scattered trials.
• Collaboration targets impact across billions of lives.
• Mattei Plan alignment ties Italy’s agenda to the effort.

Focus areas and infrastructure

• Agriculture, health, education, livelihoods, and public services top the list.
• Teams will build voice-enabled tools for low-connectivity zones.
• Multilingual models and affordable computing aim to cut barriers.
• Goal targets 100 AI Diffusion Pathways by 2030.

Ecosystem and signing details

• Nairobi AI Forum 2026 helped unlock compute for African innovators.
• Dr. Eva Spina signed for the AI Hub steering group.
• Mary N. Kerema and Shankar Maruwada inked the Letter of Strategic Intent.
• William Kabogo Gitau witnessed alongside Adolfo Urso and Ashwini Vaishnaw.