Masakhane African Languages Hub

Join our first Masakhane Munasabah - whose meaning is derived from many African Arabic dialects to mean a special gathering or occasion. We are bringing together leading academicians and practitioners from the fields of NLP, Linguistics, Civil Society, and Sociology, to discuss the evolution, orality and the future of African language technology.

We are on a mission to democratise AI and empower over 1 billion Africans through inclusive, open-source AI tools built by and for the continent. Getting there means building an institution that can hold multiple funding streams, complex donor arrangements and a growing grants portfolio — so the Masakhane Research Foundation is looking for a Senior Lead, Institutional Finance and Grants Management to join our team! About the Role Reporting to the Director of the Masakhane African Languages Hub, you will be accountable for the development, governance and performance of MRF's institutional finance and grants management function. You'll establish the strategic frameworks, policies, controls, systems and delegated authorities required to manage institutional resources and the full grants portfolio, and provide oversight of financial sustainability, organisational risk, donor compliance and institutional reporting. A core part of the role is designing grant-making mechanisms that balance fiduciary responsibility with our commitment to accessible, community-centred funding — including differentiated risk approaches suited to the size and maturity of each grantee, rather than a single uniform compliance model. Key Details Location: Kenya - Remote Contract: Full-time Remote Setup Support How to Apply Applications are being reviewed on a rolling basis, so we encourage early submissions. Submit your application detailing your relevant executive finance and grants management experience. Please note: this position is based in Kenya. We welcome applications from candidates already based in Kenya with the legal right to work in the country. We are unable to provide relocation assistance or sponsor work authorisation for this role. Apply now! https://lnkd.in/dvNmpRVk Masakhane

We are on a mission to democratise AI and empower over 1 billion Africans through inclusive, open-source AI tools built by and for the continent. Delivering on that mission depends on financial stewardship we can stand behind — so the Masakhane Research Foundation is looking for a Senior Finance Officer to join our team! About the Role Reporting to the Senior Lead, Institutional Finance and Grants Management, you will take day-to-day ownership of MRF's finance function. You'll lead month-end close, accounting, reconciliations, financial reporting, cash-flow forecasting, budget monitoring and audit preparation, translating our institutional financial policies into effective practice. You'll also provide technical guidance to the Finance and Grants Officer and work closely with budget holders, programme teams and the Senior Grants Manager. Key Details Location: Kenya - Remote Contract: Full-time Remote Setup Support How to Apply Applications are being reviewed on a rolling basis, so we encourage early submissions. Submit your application detailing your relevant finance and financial management experience. Please note: this position is based in Kenya. We welcome applications from candidates already based in Kenya with the legal right to work in the country. We are unable to provide relocation assistance or sponsor work authorisation for this role. Apply now! https://lnkd.in/dvNmpRVk Masakhane

We are on a mission to democratise AI and empower over 1 billion Africans through inclusive, open-source AI tools built by and for the continent. As our funding portfolio grows, we need the finance and grants engine behind it to be just as solid — so the Masakhane Research Foundation is looking for a Finance and Grants Officer to join our team! About the Role Working under the technical guidance of the Senior Finance Officer and the Senior Grants Manager, you will process transactions, maintain financial and grant records, coordinate routine compliance, and track budgets and grant obligations. The role is the operational link between Finance, Grants, Programme, Partnerships and Community teams, and works directly with grantees and implementing partners. Key Details Location: Kenya - Remote Contract: Full-time Remote Setup Support How to Apply Applications are being reviewed on a rolling basis, so we encourage early submissions. Submit your application detailing your relevant finance and grants administration experience. Please note: this position is based in Kenya. We welcome applications from candidates already based in Kenya with the legal right to work in the country. We are unable to provide relocation assistance or sponsor work authorisation for this role. Apply now! https://lnkd.in/dvNmpRVk Masakhane

Join our first Masakhane Munasabah (Munasabah is derived from many African Arabic dialects to mean a special gathering or occasion). Topic: Our living languages Date: Wednesday, 23 September 2026 Time: 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm (UTC+3) Register today! https://lnkd.in/dXxEN5Tz Most African languages are spoken first and written later (sometimes); but their most generative change happens in oral prose: in proverb and praise, on the radio, on public transport, in the market, in a voice note. Meanwhile, Natural Language Processing has developed within different parameters: stable, bounded, written, and countable. When African NLP is considered under these parameters, there is a clear design mismatch. The good news is that design mismatches can be solved. Our upcoming roundtable on the evolving nature of our spoken languages in the AI age seeks to move beyond the conceptual discussion: what a language is and who decides. We pursue a more innovative discussion: how do we build for languages that keep moving? And raise practical and ethical questions: what changes on the ground, who owns the work, and what will still stand in twenty years? The roundtable will bring together leading academicians and practitioners in NLP, linguistics, civil society, and sociology. Register today! https://lnkd.in/dXxEN5Tz The invitation is open to all who have a passion for African languages and are keen to learn more about their future in technology. Stay tuned for more details!! #Masakhane #AfricanLanguages #MunasabahRoundTable Ife Adebara, PhD Kofi Yakpo

Maternal and infant health information in Nigeria is delivered through channels that quietly exclude the women who need it most. HelpMum Africa Foundation in Nigeria is working to bridge this gap by building on its existing maternal health chatbot, which serves a user base of 180,000 mothers, to develop voice-enabled AI capabilities in Yoruba and Hausa that can improve access to maternal and infant health information. While in Nigeria for Deep Learning Indaba 2026, the Hub visited HelpMum’s headquarters in Lagos on 5 August, where we met with the wider HelpMum team for an in-person progress update on the ECHO-supported work. The visit gave us an opportunity to see their operations firsthand, engage directly with the team leading the implementation, and discuss progress and next steps. We were particularly encouraged by the level of team mobilisation and the infrastructure in place to support the work. HelpMum is one of the use cases under our ECHO (Enhancing Communications for Her Opportunities) programme, an initiative supporting the development and evaluation of AI-enabled solutions that use African languages to improve outcomes for women and girls. Through funding, technical assistance, evidence generation, and ecosystem engagement, ECHO seeks to demonstrate how language-inclusive and gender-responsive AI can expand access to information, services, and opportunities in health, livelihoods, and economic empowerment across Africa. #MasakhaneHub #Masakhane #AfricanLanguages #InclusiveTech HelpMum Africa

Exciting news! Back in May, we encouraged the Masakhane community to apply for the Africa AI Safety Prize Competition and share the opportunity with your networks. The results are now out! 🔗 Visit https://lnkd.in/dkUkwfYp to learn more about the successful projects. Congratulations to the winners and finalists, and a big thank you to everyone who participated! Centre for AI Security and Access Masakhane

The Masakhane Research Foundation is delighted to welcome on board Dr. Nancy Adossi, Senior Manager, Research Program and Technical Delivery. With more than 15 years of experience leading complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives across Africa, North America, and Europe, she brings a rare combination of expertise in AI research, international policy, strategy, and community engagement to the role. Her experience spans the United Nations, the World Bank Group, the European Union, and the African Union, where she has worked at the intersection of technology, policy, and development. What makes Nancy’s journey especially meaningful to Masakhane is her commitment to African linguistics and cultural representation in AI. A polyglot fluent in French, English, Spanish, and Ewe, with working knowledge of Fon, she has carried this commitment into her recent work as an editor for the Center for AI and Digital Policy’s upcoming 2027 Democratic Values and AI Index. She is also hoping to add Swahili and Italian to her linguistic repertoire. We are excited for the research, partnerships, and possibilities that will grow under Nancy’s leadership, and we look forward to building a future in which African communities, languages, and perspectives are not only represented in AI, but help shape it. #Masakhane #AfricanNLP #BuildingAfricanLanguageAI Chenai Chair Kathleen Siminyu Clemencia Siro Hatem Haddad Tajuddeen Gwadabe Noah Kipkoech Kevin Harerimana Christiane Ansa Emmin Lydia Taban

This week at the African Women in Strategy Summit, the Hub is proud to be represented by Chenai Chair, who will be leading a vital skill-share session on Inclusive Tech. Her session, Care as Strategy: Building Sustainable Leadership for Inclusive Technology, explores a powerful truth: inclusive technology cannot exist without the knowledge, lived experiences, and leadership of those historically excluded from tech design and governance. This will be an interactive session where attendees will explore practical tools and frameworks to: 1. Design ecosystems of care that actively protect and support leaders. 2. Share responsibility to help prevent burnout across teams. 3. Build long-term resilience within impact-driven movements. 4. Ensure the people most essential to building inclusive solutions are equipped to sustain their work. We look forward to the ideas, strategies, and movement-building that will come out of this engagement. Artificial Intelligence for Development (AI4D) InkDot - Strategic Innovation Consultancy Feminist Internet Research Network Chara Itoka Chenai Chair #awiss2026 #africanwomeninstrategy