The Institute for Inclusive Digital Africa (IIDIA) and the Agency for Information Systems and Digital Technology (ASIN) have officially launched the Regional Innovation and Digital Technology Lab in Cotonou, introducing their first groundbreaking initiative: the development of a voice-to-voice artificial intelligence (AI) model in the Fon language.
This milestone project is a powerful response to a long-standing challenge in West Africa’s digital landscape: language exclusion. Despite more than 1,000 local languages across the region, most digital services cater only to French or English speakers. Fon, spoken by millions in Benin and neighboring countries, has been largely absent from digital platforms.
The AI model will allow users, especially rural populations and the elderly, to access digital services in their native language, without the need for literacy or foreign language skills.
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“This project is a model for adapting AI to Africa’s linguistic diversity. We are building more than a tool; we are laying the foundation for a multilingual, inclusive African public digital infrastructure, deeply rooted in the continent’s realities, giving a digital voice to millions of Africans in their mother tongues,” said Ambassador Makarimi Adechoubou, Chairman of IIDIA.
“This is not just about technology; it is about dignity. Africa’s digital future cannot be built without its languages, its voices, and its realities. When a grandmother in a village can ask for her bank balance in Fon and receive an immediate answer, that’s real inclusion,” added Marc André Loko, Director General of ASIN.
A functional prototype will be completed within nine months, built through community-based voice data collection, and trained on high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs), namely NVIDIA A100/H100.
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The Fon project is just the beginning. The lab aims to scale this model across other African languages and strategic sectors such as agriculture, public health, mobility, e-governance, and education.
Backed by the Gates Foundation and co-led by the digital ministries of Benin, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire, the lab champions Africa’s digital sovereignty by fostering South-South cooperation, open innovation, and technological independence.
The initiative now calls on tech partners, researchers, investors, and policymakers to support its mission. The next phase will extend the model to more local languages and lay the groundwork for a nationwide rollout in Benin.
