The global tech giant, Google disclosed on Wednesday, 25th May 2022 that it would invest $1 billion over the next five years to foster faster cum more affordable internet access and support entrepreneurship in Africa.
Internet reliability has been a major challenge in Africa where less than a third of the continent’s 1.3 billion people are connected to broadband, according to the World Bank.
But the continent, where nearly half the population is under 18, is a promising market.
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According to Google and Alphabet boss, Sundar Picha,i “huge strides” have been made in recent years, but more work was still needed to make “internet accessible, affordable and useful for every African”.
“The investment will support digital transformation by ensuring improved connectivity and access.” he said in a statement.
He hinted that the funds would, among other things, go towards infrastructural development including the Equiano subsea cable that would connect South Africa, Namibia, Nigeria and St Helena with Europe.
The deal expands Google’s pledge announced four years ago to train around 10 million young Africans and small-scale businesses in digital skills.
On his part, the Google’s Africa Managing Director, Nitin Gajria said, “I am of the firm belief that no one is better placed to solve Africa’s biggest problems than Africa’s young developers and start-up founders”.
It’s noteworthy internet access is also hampered by the affordability of smartphones, hence Google disclosed it would partner with Kenya’s telecoms giant, Safaricom to launch affordable Android smartphones for first-time users.
The project, according to the boss, would later be rolled out across the continent with other carriers such Airtel, MTN, Orange and Vodacom
Google Adds More Languages To Its ‘Translate Platform’
On the other hand, Google has added 24 new languages spoken by more than 300 million people to its ‘Google Translate Platform’.
Ten of the new additions are in Africa, including Lingala of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Twi of Ghana, and Tigrinya of Eritrea.
“For years, Google Translate has helped break down language barriers and connect communities all over the world.” the US-based company said.
It stated the new addition was aimed at helping those whose languages weren’t represented in most technology.
The new language update comes with Bhojpuri, which is spoken by as many as 50 million people in northern India, Nepal and Fiji, to Dhivehi with its estimated 300,000 speakers in the Maldives.
The update now brings to 133, the total number of languages available on the Google Translate.
The company says the new languages also represent a technical milestone, explaining that they use a machine learning model which learns to “translate into another language without ever seeing an example.
But the company, however, admits that the technology isn’t perfect as some linguists have noted problems with the languages already available.
“For many supported languages, even the largest languages in Africa that we have supported – say like Yoruba, Igbo – the translation is not great. It will definitely get the idea across but often it will lose much of the subtlety of the language.” Google Translate research scientist Isaac Caswell disclosed to the press.
In 2020, Google Translate added five new languages to the platform in what was then its first expansion in the past few years.
This is welcome development, to assert the least. More so, the Google team is urged to take painstakingly finding across the continent towards discovering other languages being spoken by massive number of individuals.