CAIRO, Egypt — The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) on Tuesday announced its sponsorship of groundbreaking pilot artificial intelligence (AI) hubs designed to transform Africa and the Caribbean into competitive forces in the global technology landscape.

The initiative, coordinated by the PJ Patterson Institute for Africa-Caribbean Advocacy, was launched last month at The University of the West Indies, Mona campus, with plans to develop advanced AI ecosystems across both regions.

“This represents a strategic leap toward digital sovereignty and economic emancipation for peoples of African descent,” said former Nigerian President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a prominent supporter of the initiative. “Africa and the Caribbean must no longer be consumers at the mercy of global innovation — they must become co-creators.”

The ambitious plan includes development of AI-enabled industries, training centres, semiconductor fabrication facilities, and robust data infrastructure. The strategy leverages Africa’s mineral resources alongside the Caribbean’s strategic logistics advantages to create what the conceptualisers believe will be a powerful economic alliance.

“As one people divided only by geography of the Atlantic Ocean, our collective interests are bound by our common challenges and aspirations. This is a time when we must move beyond resilience in the face of adversity to actively set our own goals, striving together to prosper together,” former Jamaica Prime Minister PJ Patterson told delegates at the Afreximbank Annual Meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, last week.

“The goal is to spearhead the development of generative artificial intelligence industries in these regions into localised, knowledge-intensive and value- and wealth-creating, globally competitive industries,” he said.

“We are building an edifice of technological innovation where we deploy our assets within the global economy, leverage our human capital and resource base under sovereign control to promote shared prosperity,” Patterson added.

The PJ Patterson Institute for Africa-Caribbean Advocacy, established to deepen pan-African collaboration, provides the intellectual foundation for coordinating this continental initiative.

This AI initiative aligns with Afreximbank’s broader technology investments, including its flagship accelerator programme launched in April 2025 which offers up to US$250,000 in equity investment for African entrepreneurs developing innovative trade solutions. The bank has also successfully expanded its Pan-African Payment and Settlement System to 16 African countries, using AI to transform cross-border payments and agricultural finance.