Cassava Technologies, Rockefeller Foundation Team Up to Boost AI Computing Access for African NGOs
The Rockefeller Foundation and Cassava Technologies (Cassava) unveiled a new initiative to use artificial intelligence’s (AI) revolutionary potential for good throughout Africa. Several grantees of The Rockefeller Foundation operating in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe will have access to compute capacity thanks to Cassava’s previously stated ambitions to construct Africa’s first AI factory powered by NVIDIA AI infrastructure.
This partnership will increase productivity and spur innovation at African organizations that are enhancing lives and livelihoods throughout the continent while allowing Africa to fully participate in the US$1.2 trillion predicted AI economy.
“AI presents Africa with one of the best opportunities to drive economic development and access to economic opportunity for the continent’s youth. This necessitates funding to guarantee that AI developers throughout Africa have the tools and platforms necessary to build answers to the continent’s particular problems. Our AI factory, powered by NVIDIA AI infrastructure, will allow businesses, startups, government agencies, and academic institutions to concentrate on creating AI applications utilizing regional datasets, languages, models, and voices to create inclusive solutions. Hardy Pemhiwa, President and Group CEO of Cassava Technologies, stated, “We are thrilled to collaborate with the Rockefeller Foundation to add local compute capacity to Africa’s AI ecosystem.”
While roughly one-in-five people worldwide lives in Africa, the continent currently possesses less than 1% of global data center capacity. Over the next ten years, Africa’s AI market—which is presently valued at $5.17 billion—is predicted to expand rapidly. Locally accessible computer capability is crucial to power Africa’s AI objectives.
When used properly, artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to significantly improve community health, agricultural productivity, and children’s education. Africans can improve opportunities, generate jobs, and follow their goals if AI is implemented properly throughout the continent. Our collaboration with Cassava reflects The Rockefeller Foundation’s foundational belief that the latest advances in science and technology should serve everyone, not just the fortunate few, and that includes empowering African innovators with the tools they need to shape the continent’s future,” said Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation.
With this new partnership, Cassava and The Rockefeller Foundation are making sure that African-led breakthroughs in the fields of education, healthcare, and agriculture have the tools they need to use AI to improve results. Initial groups that will benefit from this new relationship include:
- A business called Digital Green uses AI in Ethiopia and Kenya to provide smallholder farmers with real-time, localized agricultural guidance that boosts growth, resilience, and production.
“Digital Green’s AI assistant, Farmer.Chat, is rethinking how smallholder farmers acquire information by providing trusted, targeted counsel at a cost nearly 100 times cheaper than traditional extension. With GPUs now available on the African continent, we may achieve advancements in speech-to-text, local language translation, picture recognition, and retrieval-augmented generation while significantly lowering prices and expanding reach. This new capability enables millions of farmers to receive climate-smart, real-time guidance, while constantly increasing accuracy, safety, and support for Africa’s many languages and agricultural ecologies. Our mission is simple but bold: to put the power of AI directly in the hands of every farmer, enabling them to become more resilient, prosperous, and connected to the future.” — Rikin Gandhi, CEO , Digital Green
- Jacaranda Health, which is harnessing technology to improve the quality of care for mothers and their children in Kenya.
“Jacaranda Health is using AI-powered solutions to connect millions of women and babies to life-saving care in real time. Access to powerful compute resources on the continent will hasten our development of culturally sensitive, multilingual AI models while lowering costs, allowing us to reach millions of women with crucial health information in their local languages. This infrastructure will reduce maternal mortality, enable informed healthcare decisions, and strengthen Africa’s ability to solve its own health concerns through domestic AI innovation.” Cynthia Kahumbura, Co-Executive Director of Jacaranda Health.
- Rising Academies is a West African company that uses technology to enhance outcomes for over 250,000 children in Ghana, Liberia, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone.
“In just one academic year, we’ve seen how AI can transform learning in Rwandan classrooms. More than 13,000 students gained access to structured reading and numeracy curriculum, teachers reduced grading time by 60% with LearnLens, and 85% of students said they enjoyed using Rori to improve their arithmetic skills. One youngster in rural Rwanda informed us that technology is no longer just for city children, but also for those of us who live in rural areas. Our mission is clear: to provide every kid with effective, inclusive, and locally relevant learning support, allowing them to succeed now and build the future of our country.” — Fidele Hagenimana, Head of Rwanda Programs , Rising Academies.
Cassava released GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) this year, which is housed in its secure data center facilities and powered by NVIDIA AI technology. The company continues to invest in infrastructure across more hubs in East, West, and North Africa, reinforcing its overall commitment to responsible AI adoption, innovation, and productivity development in Africa. The cooperation demonstrates Cassava’s dedication to making GPUaas available to groups working in the social sector.
“Cassava’s engagements with key players are vital to the development of Africa’s AI ecosystem, ensuring that Africans are more than just AI consumers, but also AI makers. “This collaboration with The Rockefeller Foundation demonstrates Cassava’s desire to lay the groundwork for an ecosystem that is inclusive, sustainable, and globally competitive,” Hardy said.
