Spio-Garbrah advocates use of AI to develop Pan-African Language

The Africa Education Trust Fund (AETF) is calling for the use of Artificial Intelligence tools to develop a Pan-African language.

The Fund says the initiative will help address the long-standing challenge of language barriers that affect trade and communication across African countries.

Speaking at the Africa Education Trust Fund Artificial Intelligence (AETF.AI) Conference 2025 on November 5, the Chairman of the Fund, Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, said the creation of a Pan-African language through AI would serve as a unifying tool among African nations.

“We can use Artificial Intelligence to create an African language. We tried it before the Swahili language came up in the 1950s or even 1960s. I believe that language being a unifier of all things is one of the most critical ingredients for Africa’s unification, which illustrious leaders spoke about in the days of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

“They spoke of how Africa must unite. If we don’t conquer the linguistic barrier, it will be difficult for us,” he said.

On his part, Kofi Adams, the Sports and Recreation Minister, called for the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create comprehensive data on sports talents in Ghana.

The Minister expressed concern about how technologically advanced nations recruit Ghanaian athletes and build detailed data and performance analytics around them.

Kofi Adams stated that establishing such a system locally would enable Ghana to generate valuable data on athletes’ performance metrics.

According to him, this initiative would help predict potential injuries among athletes and design personalised training programs suited to their individual needs.

The Minister further highlighted the need for the ethical development and application of AI tools, guided by African cultural values and principles.