Worried about the growing crisis of Low Resource Languages (LRLs) across Africa, a Pan-African language-technology startup, Awalingo, has pledged to tackle the challenge threatening the survival and digital relevance of indigenous tongues on the continent.

   Ahead of its launch, the firm raised concerns that despite Africa accounting for a significant portion of the world’s over 7,000 languages, many of these languages remain underrepresented in digital and artificial intelligence systems.
   
This, it noted, has contributed to a widening linguistic gap, with hundreds of African languages now endangered.
  
Awalingo disclosed that widely spoken languages such as Yoruba, Hausa, Swahili and Akan are still classified as LRLs due to insufficient digital data, limiting their use in modern technologies like text-to-speech systems, navigation tools and large language models.
   
The firm further highlighted the cultural and economic implications of this gap, stressing that Africa risks losing not only its linguistic heritage but also an estimated $100 billion in potential annual economic value tied to localized digital services.
  
It described the situation as a language emergency, noting that the gradual replacement of native expressions with foreign alternatives is eroding linguistic ecosystems.
  
Awalingo said its community-driven platform would enable users to create, validate and popularise vocabulary in their native languages, ultimately transforming them into high-resource languages fit for the digital age.
  
The startup’s launch events will kick off in Lagos on April 12, followed by activations in Ogbomoso, Offa, Kano, and Anambra.
  
Awalingo is also launching the #AwalingoChallenge on TikTok, with a N500,000 cash prize to accelerate adoption and awareness.