“AI is the next frontier, and I want Africa to be part of shaping it, not just using it.”
— Emmanuel Lubanzadio
But shaping takes more than access. OpenAI handed out ChatGPT accounts and watched them go unused, because an account makes a user, not a builder. The difference between using AI and shaping it is capability — knowing how to build with the tools, not just open them.
That's what we install: Codex on the laptop, and the capability to put it to work by the next day.
This isn't charity. The talent is already here — African operators and creators understand their markets and their problems better than anyone. Many already run businesses; what's often missing is the capability layer that turns a free account into real output: content that ships, products that launch, work that runs better.
Give Africans that, and they build what no outsider could.
with a chief of staff that knows their business.
“Catch me up on everything that moved while I was offline, and tell me the three things only I can decide today.”
with a content brain that knows their voice, their best-performing posts, and their audience.
They dump ideas into it all week; every Friday it gives them a week of on-brand content, shaped for each platform.
Cape Town is Southern Africa. Nairobi is East Africa. Lagos is West Africa. The Summit is the continental convergence. Each phase unlocks the next — Emmanuel's first yes is just Phase 1.
The Cape Town pilot. Codex installs live, Maistros documented. Success here unlocks the rest of the partnership.
Nairobi opens East Africa, Lagos opens West Africa. Both build on what Cape Town proved — same model, two new regions.
The annual convergence. The Maistros from all three cities come back to Cape Town. The continental gathering OpenAI anchors.
Phase 1 proves the model in Cape Town. Phase 2 opens East and West Africa. Phase 3 brings the whole continent back together.
The ask right now is simple: approve the Cape Town pilot. Everything else — Lagos, Nairobi, the Summit — is what a successful pilot unlocks.
200 operators walk in curious. Walk out building. Codex install behind glass, panel out front. The pilot that unlocks the rest.
East Africa scale-out hub. Unlocked by the Cape Town pilot. Kenyan creators and early-stage founders walk in with a laptop, walk out with Codex installed live.
Nigeria is where the builders are. The biggest country on the continent, used to doing things at scale, gets the biggest 2026 room.
"Cannes of AI" Day 1. OpenAI Africa keynote Day 2. AI runway + Wellness Day 3. The Maistros from all three cities convene.
2026 core ask $115,000 across all four African regions (Cape Town + Nairobi + Lagos)
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2027 Summit anchor $500K floor → $750K target → $1M+ stretch
Phase 1 is Emmanuel's first yes. Phase 2 and Phase 3 unlock after Cape Town proves the model.
Beyond logo placement. These activations establish meaningful roots in key African markets.
200 driven entrepreneurs walk in curious and walk out building. Speaker panel out front, live Codex install behind glass. The first room of the partnership starts in your own Innovation City backyard.
Nigeria has the largest population in Africa and the continent's deepest tech-builder gravity. Lagos should feel bigger because the market is bigger: founders, creators, operators, and the people most likely to turn Codex into companies.
Four days. AI film festival with a 5-director jury and black-tie gala. OpenAI Africa keynote, Codex live builds, Bartlett-tier headline at the larger tier, AI runway, and Wellness × AI installation with Whoop and DNA partners. The continent gathers. You are named on the wall. Paid event.
East Africa scale-out hub. Kenyan creators and early-stage founders walk in with the laptop and walk out with Codex installed live. Nairobi is to East Africa what Lagos is to West Africa — a regional scale-out room unlocked by the Cape Town pilot.
Every attendee across every event lands in the AfricAI Success Community — a post-event layer for ongoing learning, skill-sharing, and documented progress. This is what turns a one-day install into a six-month outcome Emmanuel can show on a wall.
Three days. One room. Real operators. AfricAI 2026, February. Sold out twice. This is the room you'd be funding the next chapter of.
Previously partnered with
“AI is the next frontier, and I want Africa to be part of shaping it, not just using it.”
Emmanuel Lubanzadio · Africa Lead, OpenAI
Same outcome, two angles. You shape the policy and the access. I make adoption cool on the ground. Seira helps make sure the outcome is strategic, human, and measurable. AI is the path back home, and the room you walked into yesterday is how we build it.
Strategic + Impact Partner on the OpenAI × AfricAI partnership. Built and exited multiple 7-figure businesses by 35. Owns community access, outcome design, and the human layer that makes the work stick after the room clears.
Award-winning journalist + producer. Hosts every panel and interviews the operators for the success-story series.
South African creative production house. Shot the AfricAI 2026 recap reel. Same crew on every event in 2026.
If this year works, AfricAI 2027 can aim at the stadium tier. Steven Bartlett on the stage at the larger budget level, your logo on the wall, tickets covering the fee. The biggest AI event Africa has ever seen.
See the Summit plan →Four days, five hundred Maistros, the keynote with your name on it. Cape Town (Southern), Nairobi (East), and Lagos (West) all feed the Summit — the Maistros from every region come back to Cape Town in Feb 2027 to convene the continent. Phase 1 is Emmanuel's first yes. Anchor sponsor conversation opens after Phase 2.
Akil "Wolf" Wade · Maistro · Cape Town
1@akilwade.com
With Seira Flores · Strategic + Impact Partner