About Us
Rethinking Africa's Role in AI Safety
The first collective effort to build AI Safety capacity across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Who We Are
We are a collective of Encode Africa Chapters working to build AI Safety capacity across the continent. We are pro-AI,pro-progress, and pro-innovation. That's precisely why we are committed to ensuring AI's potential is not overshadowed by its risks. Our mission is to strengthen Africa's footprint in the global AI Safety ecosystem by fostering a collaborative community where diverse actors contribute meaningfully towards shaping safe and ethical AI. We pursue this through advocacy, literacy, policy engagement, and community building, ensuring that Africa's voice helps shape the future of safe and ethical AI.
Our Approach
AI Safety Action Weeks
Monthly 10-day mini hacathons that build upon each other to educate, engage, and empower participants in AI Safety topics.
AI Safety Essentials Fellowship
Comprehensive fellowship for students and early-career professionals to develop a good overview of the global AI Safety landscape and African context. Fellows gain a good working knowledge to chart their career path in AI Safety.
Campus Organizing Circles
Student-led circles designed to foster AI Safety communities on university campuses across Africa through a structured curriculum and peer collaboration.
Amazing tools we have worked on
Leadership
Meet the leaders guiding Encode SSA's mission to democratize AI Safety across Africa.
Kayode Adekoya
Advisor
Kayode is an economist, entrepreneur, and AI Safety advocate with a strong background in research, finance, and management across both public and private sectors. An active member of the Effective Altruism community, he has facilitated programs with EA Nigeria, the Equiano Institute, AI Safety Sweden and Career Planning - EA Germany, while contributing to research initiatives at the Wheeler Institute (London Business School) and the Forecasting Research Institute. He is the founder of The AI Guardian, an advocacy platform advancing AI Safety awareness in Africa. Passionate about systemic solutions for global betterment, Kayode brings expertise in ethical advocacy, problem-solving, and impact-driven initiatives to his role as an Encode advisor.
Ifeoma is an AI Governance Advisor and accomplished lawyer with over eight years of experience in corporate legal advisory, regulatory navigation, and governance risk management. Her technical background in data annotation gives her practical insight into data integrity, training flaws, and bias in AI systems. She bridges law and technology by translating complex AI concepts into actionable legal strategy, helping ensure AI systems are designed with ethical safeguards and strong compliance foundations. She co-leads the AI Collective Abuja group and founded AI LiteraSeries, a pan-African initiative advancing AI literacy across Africa.
Joyce is a global advocacy and policy professional working at the intersection of AI governance, human rights, and Global South inclusion. She engages multilateral institutions and UN processes to advance inclusive global AI policy. As part of Encode's International Task Force, she supports research, stakeholder mapping, and strategy on AI safety and accountable governance. She also serves as Global Advocacy Officer at Sightsavers and is an AI Safety Fellow with the AI Safety Initiative at Georgia Tech.
Meriem works across agent-based modeling, human-AI interaction, and product innovation, studying how socio-technical systems co-evolve and how governance dynamics can align collective agency at scale. She is Founder and Chief Scientist at the Tunisian Observatory on Digital Futures, Associate Policy Engineer at the Equiano Institute, and Head of Cross-Regional Strategy at Encode MENA. Her experience spans AI strategy, research, and product leadership across Africa, Europe, and North America, and includes graduate training in AI and sustainability with ongoing doctoral research in engineering and computational social sciences.
Joseph is a Türkiye Burslari scholar at Hacettepe University who took two gap years after high school to explore his interests, stack skills, and contribute to the global AI Safety network. During this time, he worked across youth-led organizations (Encode, Fidutam, JSAO, TAP), research projects (AI divide between the global south and north, AI Ecosystems mapping), and community initiatives, building expertise in quantum computing, project management, and AI governance. Passionate about diplomacy and technology, Joseph aspires to a career at the intersection of international relations and emerging technologies. At Encode SSA, he focuses on capacity-building and regional strategy as the Regional Lead and Executive Director of SSA Encode LBG.
We see our network as a strategic arena for global AI Safety movements to identify and collaborate with new talent, diverse thinkers, and regional organizations—all united by a shared mission to shape responsible AI development worldwide.