Kenyan delegates joined global leaders at the official inauguration of the AI Hub for Sustainable Development in Rome on Friday June 20, 2025, capping a year of high-level engagements that began with H.E. President Ruto’s G7 address, continued through Ambassador Thigo’s technical leadership at the Ministerial Meeting on AI in Rome, and were reinforced by Italy’s Ministry of Industry and Made in Italy Undersecretary’s visit to Nairobi in May 2025. Together, these milestones lay a firm foundation for Kenyan start-ups to harness AI opportunities under the Mattei Plan partnership.
The AI Hub for Sustainable Development was officially inaugurated at the UNDP Italy headquarters in Rome. Created under the Italian G7 Presidency at the instigation of the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme and African partners involved in the Mattei Plan, the event drew 500 participants from more than 60 countries, as well as hundreds more online. During the launch, 25 public-private partnerships were announced between African innovators, Italian and European industry, G7 companies such as Amazon and Microsoft, and government leaders from the 14 African Mattei Plan countries: Algeria, Angola, Congo Brazzaville, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania and Tunisia.
The Hub aims to accelerate sustainable industrial growth in Africa through the responsible use of AI, leveraging global innovation partnerships to strengthen local ecosystems. A central theme of the launch was that outdated solutions and traditional collaborations cannot meet the unique needs of Africa’s dynamic AI market; bold new partnerships are required to propel the continent’s AI infrastructure and ecosystems toward a prosperous future for all.
Ambassador Philip Thigo, Kenya’s Special Envoy on Technology, was appointed as a founding member of the Executive Steering Group of the AI Hub for Sustainable Development by invitation of Italy’s Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy, Senator Adolfo Urso. He joins Egypt as one of only two African representatives—on a rotational basis alongside the African Development Bank, the European Union, Italy and UNDP—underscoring Kenya’s leadership in shaping the future of AI in Africa and ensuring that African perspectives are integral to the Hub’s strategic direction. The Hub targets four pillars of AI success: data, compute, talent and partnerships—to empower local leaders to build solutions that address domestic priorities and global markets.
“Outdated solutions and traditional collaborations cannot meet the unique needs of Africa’s dynamic AI market; bold collaborations are needed to propel the continent’s AI infrastructure and ecosystems towards a prosperous future for all.” — Senator Adolfo Urso, Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy.
“AI has been concentrated among a few countries and a few companies; unshackling Africa from the burden of history that has been exclusion from opportunity is a groundbreaking move. Kenya continues to laud the leadership of H.E. President William Ruto and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for this new model of partnership based on equity, action and shared prosperity.” Amb. Philip Thigo, Special Envoy on Technology, Kenya
“Rather than transferring technologies or training in the use of existing tools, the Hub strengthens foundations—data, computation, talent and partnerships to enable African innovators to create solutions that respond to both local development priorities and global markets.” Marcos Neto, Deputy Secretary-General, UNDP “The AI Hub creates vibrant spaces where diverse perspectives generate scalable solutions, enabling African innovators to build an AI future where everyone can thrive, providing the much-needed costly and inaccessible infrastructure such as Compute.” Tonee Ndungu, Kytabu Kenya and session moderator.
Empowering Kenyan Youth: Five Flagship Programmes Kenyan and other African students, entrepreneurs, and policymakers can now access a suite of initiatives designed to lower barriers and accelerate impact:
. AskHub Chatbot: An AI-driven guide that supports innovators through ideation, prototyping and scaling.
. Africa Green Compute Coalition: Workshops, hackathons, and cloud credits to integrate renewable-powered data centres into Kenya’s tech ecosystem.
. Compute Accelerator Programme: Six-month cohorts offering cloud credits, technical mentorship and cross-border partnerships to ready products for global markets.
. AI Infrastructure Builder Programme: Business planning, government and investor matchmaking, and regulatory guidance for data centre, connectivity, and energy projects.
. Strategic Partnerships Collaborations such as Domyn’s language-model initiatives and EU–Microsoft MoUs provide direct pathways to skills training, funding and international networks.
The launch reaffirmed the Hub’s commitment to accessible, sustainable infrastructure based on robust ecosystems of data, compute and talent. Startup leaders, multinationals and governments all underscored the fundamental role of transformative, high-impact collaborations on the ground.
