British actor and entrepreneur Idris Elba has partnered with Google to provide about 100,000 African creators with access to artificial intelligence tools valued at approximately $1 million.
According to Bloomberg, the initiative was announced following Google’s AI Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The programme will provide creators in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Sierra Leone, and South Africa with access to Google’s Gemini AI assistant and other digital tools through Elba’s Elba Hope Foundation.
The initiative aims to help creators produce content more efficiently, reduce production costs, and compete in global markets.
The partnership comes as Africa’s creative economy continues to expand.
According to industry estimates, the sector has contributed nearly 4% of sub-Saharan Africa’s gross domestic product since 2019, generating more than $58 billion in revenue while accounting for about 8.2% of employment across the region.
Speaking during the summit, Elba said the programme seeks to bridge the gap between Africa’s creative talent and limited access to technology.
“The barrier is not a lack of vision — it’s a lack of access. Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not,” he said.
Elba also disclosed plans to establish a permanent presence in Africa within the next few years as part of efforts to strengthen the continent’s creative infrastructure.
Despite Africa’s large and youthful population, the continent currently has fewer than 3,000 cinema screens.
Google Senior Vice President James Manyika said AI could enable creators without access to expensive studios or production budgets to produce high-quality content.
“We think about all those creatives who don’t have access to these enormous studio budgets. AI is potentially a tool that can enable them to do work that they couldn’t otherwise do because they don’t have huge budgets,” he said.
