Hassanein Hiridjee sees telecom as Africa’s AI backbone

Hassanein Hiridjee sees telecom as Africa’s AI backbone

Malagasy tycoon Hassanein Hiridjee does not frame Africa’s artificial intelligence ambitions as a distant promise. In a recent interview with Bloomberg’s Next Africa, he spoke about it as a practical challenge rooted in infrastructure, capital and cooperation. For Hiridjee, founder of Axian Group and the largest shareholder in e-commerce firm Jumia, the starting point is clear: without stronger telecommunications networks, AI on the continent wi…