AfDB and UNDP Move AI 10 Billion Initiative From Launch to Delivery

The African Development Bank Group and the United Nations Development Programme are moving their AI 10 Billion Initiative from launch into delivery. The step follows a UNDP delegation’s visit to the bank’s headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

The bank, UNDP and private sector partners co-designed the initiative. It aims to coordinate $1 billion a year in financing over the next decade, which its backers say could contribute to 25 million new jobs across Africa by 2035.

Keyzom Ngodup Massally led the delegation from UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa. She is director of the AI Hub for Sustainable Development, and UNDP’s Platform for Investment and Technical Assistance joined her.

The initiative was launched at the Nairobi AI Forum in February 2026. Work also continues on the Africa Accelerator for Digital Public Infrastructure.

In each participating country, the programme will run in three stages:

• A single country analysis will identify where AI can lift productivity.

• Public and private projects will be identified and prepared until they are ready for financing.

• A partnership investment platform will bring governments, investors and regional economic communities together.

The bank and UNDP plan to start in five countries and expand to 20 by the end of 2027.

They are inviting governments, development finance institutions, private investors and philanthropies to join.

Each partner brings different strengths. The bank contributes its evidence base, financing and relationships with its 54 regional member countries. UNDP contributes its country presence and technical expertise through the AI Hub for Sustainable Development, of which the bank is a member.

The partners argue that the capital needed for AI’s foundations already exists among governments, development finance institutions and private investors. Those foundations are energy, data and skills, and the partners say what is missing is a shared focus.

The initiative builds on the bank’s 2025 report, Africa’s AI Productivity Gain. The report projects that inclusive AI adoption could add up to $1 trillion to Africa’s GDP by 2035. It places 58% of that potential in five sectors: agriculture, wholesale and retail, manufacturing, finance and health.

More than 300 million young Africans are expected to reach working age within the next decade. The bank says this makes productivity the measure that matters.

Solomon Quaynor is the bank’s vice-president for private sector, infrastructure and industrialisation. He said productivity is one of the key measures the bank uses to judge AI’s promise. He added that the partnership with UNDP would align public and private capital behind that goal, so that AI’s benefits translate into “competitiveness, employment and inclusive growth” across the continent.

Originally published by African Development Bank Group.