info@businessghana.com
Partnership deploys “Chidi,” an AI-powered learning companion, positioning Africa at the centre of global tech innovation
?ALX, Anthropic, and the Government of Rwanda announced a landmark partnership to enhance learning and teaching across Africa through artificial intelligence. The initiative introduces “Chidi” - an AI-powered learning companion built on Anthropic’s Claude model, designed to guide both learners and educators through critical thinking and problem-solving.
“This collaboration marks a bold step in redefining how African talent learns, works, and leads in the age of AI,” says Fred Swaniker, Founder and CEO of ALX. “Through our partnership with Anthropic and the Government of Rwanda, we are ensuring that Africa’s youth are not just consumers of AI, but creators, shaping the innovations that will define the global economy.”
This partnership represents one of the largest AI-enhanced education deployments on the continent, uniting ALX's commitment to empowering African talent, Anthropic's vision for accessible and responsible AI, and Rwanda's Vision 2050 to build an AI-ready workforce and accelerate digital transformation across Rwanda.
Following the successful Phase 1 rollout of Chidi to ALX learners across Africa, where more than 1,100 conversations and 4,000 chats were recorded within just two days, the next phase of the partnership extends this transformative technology to Rwanda's public education system in a groundbreaking Phase 2 pilot. Chidi, which acts as a personalised tutor, helps to guide users through questions designed to spark curiosity and critical thinking rather than providing direct answers. For teachers, it becomes a partner in lesson design and student engagement. For learners, it represents access to round-the-clock, world-class guidance that nurtures creativity and confidence.
In this Phase 2 pilot, in addition to exploring Chidi in higher learning institutions, up to 2,000 educators across Rwanda, along with a select group of civil servants, will take part in ALX’s AI Career Essentials program, gaining hands-on experience in using generative AI tools like Anthropic’s Claude Large Language Model to elevate how they teach, plan lessons, and improve productivity in their day-to-day work.
Graduates of this pilot will receive a year of access to Claude Tools, such as Claude Pro for individuals and Claude Code for developer teams in government, while exploring Claude for Education with university educators, ensuring that this new literacy in AI continues to shape classrooms and the workplace long after the program ends.
A joint ALX, Anthropic, and Government of Rwanda working group will document insights from the pilot to inform Rwanda’s national AI policy in education and develop future innovations such as Chidi for Schools and localised African language models. This initiative is not only about introducing technology into classrooms but about equipping educators and students to learn, teach, and imagine at the pace of their ambition, setting a new standard for inclusive AI-powered learning across Africa.
This three-way collaboration unites visionary forces redefining the future of technology and education.
ALX, Africa’s fastest-growing tech talent accelerator, connects hundreds of thousands of young Africans to transformative opportunities, equipping them with the skills to thrive in the global economy. ALX will contribute the training, delivery, and implementation infrastructure, ensuring smooth rollout and educator enablement.
“This is not just about bringing technology to Africa; it’s about reimagining how learning itself happens," says Swaniker. ? "With Chidi, we’re shifting from traditional instruction to intelligent, inquiry-driven learning that builds critical thinking, creativity and problem-solving at scale. This is how Africa’s youth will generate the ideas and solutions that define sustainable development and shape a thriving future.”
Anthropic, a leading U.S.-based AI safety and research company, provides the Claude large language model and technical guidance on safe and responsible deployment. Anthropic will cover LLM/API-related costs to support the deployment of Chidi and Claude access. ?
??
?“We believe transformative AI should be accessible to learners across the world, regardless of geography," says Elizabeth Kelly, Head of Beneficial Deployments at Anthropic. "By partnering with ALX and the Rwandan government, we’re ensuring Claude’s capabilities strengthen education safely and responsibly across several countries in Africa.”
The Government of Rwanda (represented through the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of ICT), a continental leader in digital transformation, is providing the policy infrastructure, access to schools and institutional leadership needed to scale AI for learning and governance, but will not bear any financial commitments under this partnership.
Joseph Nsengimana, Minister of Education for Rwanda, says: “Rwanda, and Africa’s, ambition is to place safe AI in the hands of educators so students gain timely, future-ready skills. Chidi is designed to free up teachers’ time in lesson preparation, personalised feedback, and to spark curiosity among students, which aligns with our Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP) priorities on teaching quality and digital literacy, and advances NST2 goals for human capital. We will assess this pilot based on measurable improvements and scale what proves effective, with safeguards for privacy and academic integrity.”
“Rwanda’s Vision 2050 places youth and technology at the core of national progress, and our goal is to build a workforce equipped for the opportunities of the 21st century," says Paula Ingabire, Minister of ICT & Innovation in Rwanda. "This collaboration allows us to explore innovative AI tools that could enhance learning, support educators, and strengthen developer capabilities. By beginning with capacity building for civil servants, we ensure our workforce gains the foundational skills to engage with emerging technologies responsibly.”
Together, these partners are ensuring that Africa’s youth have the same AI-powered learning advantages as their peers in Silicon Valley, Beijing, or London. ? They are creating a new blueprint for AI-enabled education, developed in Africa and shared globally, demonstrating how global technology, African innovation, and public-sector leadership can deliver scalable, ethical, and transformative learning solutions. ? For future expansion, the partners will jointly explore opportunities to enable scaling up across Rwanda and other African markets.
By combining ALX’s learning innovation, Anthropic’s AI technology, and Rwanda’s progressive governance, this initiative provides a direct pathway from ambition to achievement.
As Chidi scales across the continent, with Rwanda serving as the launch hub and model for future deployments, its impact extends well beyond individual success. It repositions Africa as a source of world-class tech talent, empowering educators and learners with the tools to learn, teach, and innovate and solidifying the continent’s place at the forefront of the global digital revolution.
