Collaboration is key for Africa
There is a level of suspicion from governments and individuals in Africa about working with large international organisations such as Google. But organisations like Google can assist in building capacity and skills in a country, says Google’s country director, Kabelo Makwane. The key is working together.
14 Jan 2026
“If you do not have the capacity to be part of the technology shift, then you must partner with who has that capacity.”
He emphasises that when tech companies enter into specific markets, they bring a big investment into physical infrastructure.
But for Google, it is more than that; it is about being intentional in that country. “How we become more intentional in capturing the lessons learned and then building localised capacity is a bit of a missed opportunity.
He says it is his job in South Africa to advocate for the local context and make sure Google develops products and shapes innovation within the global Google, with that in mind.
Developing vernacular languages
For example, in 2025, Google has partnered with the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) to promote South Africa's official languages in the digital space to localise Large Language Models (LLM) and to translate what had been developed in English only originally into local languages.
It started with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) glossary that standardises 100 AI terms in isiZulu, isiXhosa, and Afrikaans.
Today, based on crowdsourcing, that lexicon has grown. Eventually, all 11 languages will be part of the AI model, making it universally accessible to anyone.
Accessible and commercialised
“Central to this investment is that LLMs at their core are meant to be accessible to everyone,” says Makwane.
This, he explains, is in line with Google’s mission to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful to everyone.
But it also goes much further than just making it available in rural areas.
“If you think about technology being accessible, it’s also about the accessibility, that is, the commercialisation in the use of the technology that becomes important.
Here, some work on AI in the commercial space has been done with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa, but, says Makwane, finding that link to fund it, to commercialise it has always been a challenge.
The CSIR’s work is brilliant, but it's in the shadows. “You need to almost pull it. It's not integrated. This is a massive capability we have in the country, and it's actually quite impactful.
He asks How do you actually support an organisation like the CSIR to produce research that would be relevant for your particular sector?
"There are many examples of how this has been done successfully, for instance, in the defence and aeronautic industry, the CSIR is a very important entity that has produced some amazing technological innovations, which were exported to the rest of the world.
"Why can't we scale that?"
This is why Google has a clear five-year strategy from an African investment point of view and has pledged to invest a billion dollars over the next three to five years in the market as well as issued grants to the tune of $7m to different institutions.
“It is about commercialising technologies, reselling them into the market and exporting to the rest of the world.
A good case in point is the weather forecasting solution was actually an African innovation, which is now finding relevance in the rest of the world, given the global climate changes, and the challenges that is bringing.
“This is practical and practicable and shows how Africa can contribute to the rest of the world,” he says.
Levelling the playing fields
There are a number of South African enterprises that have expansion and global ambitions.
Recently, Google launched a partnership with Discovery Vitality in the UK and US, and its capacity allowed them to level up and be on par with their global competitors.
He cites other examples in various sectors, including retail clients that leverage Google’s e-commerce capabilities to reach broader audiences.
Low-hanging fruit
Google also works to solve real problems on the continent itself. One of the sectors Google partners with is education and tertiary institutions.
“If you're producing skills that are irrelevant for the future, the unemployment problem in your country will only get worse.
“Being intentional means fixing the structural unemployment issue first, because there are jobs there in the market, but nobody to fill them because the people who are coming out of university do not have the relevant skills for that.”
While he says this is a low-hanging fruit, we are not accelerating in capturing some of that low-hanging fruit enough.
“You cannot regulate AI into oblivion in the learning space. It is always going to be there. So, how do you then integrate it in the teaching and learning process is something to be solved for, correct?
He also talks about automated social services from the government – “Also low-hanging fruit.”
Working together
“Maybe I'm being simplistic about it, but these are some of the things that I think are there for us to position the country differently in terms of being a formidable global participant.”
But he says when it comes to any sort of economy, and particularly a digitised, globalised, connected economy, it only works when people participate and share in it together.
“We have to work with people. We have to work together. We have to create partnerships and cross over our divides and prejudices to move forward, to embrace the entirety of what is possible for technology, AI, and everything when it comes to our continent, and of course, connecting with the whole world.”
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About Danette Breitenbach
Danette Breitenbach is a marketing & media editor at Bizcommunity.com. Previously she freelanced in the marketing and media sector, including for Bizcommunity. She was editor and publisher of AdVantage, the publication that served the marketing, media and advertising industry in southern Africa. She has worked extensively in print media, mainly B2B. She has a Masters in Financial Journalism from Wits.
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