Enzi Prize

The Enzi Prize is a programme of the Enzi Prize Foundation, a Delaware non-profit corporation, focused on making capable AI affordable and accessible across Africa. Its $10 million prize competition aims to reduce AI inference costs by 50 to 100 times and strengthen the continent’s sovereign AI capacity. The challenge has two tracks: Local AI, for models running on commonly owned hardware, especially phones, and API-Served AI, for lower-cost services running on reference hardware. Solutions must be open source, reproducible, and royalty-free for African and Global South use.

The initiative also offers registered teams access to a subsidized shared GPU pool and a public benchmark leaderboard. At least $2 million is allocated to research scholarships and fellowships, supporting qualifying teams and researchers working toward the challenge. The prize is designed to encourage applications benefiting areas such as healthcare, agriculture, education, and governance. The Enzi Prize also convenes practitioners through a working AI conference in Lagos, scheduled for October 28, 2026, and invites teams, sponsors, partners, and attendees to participate in building Africa’s AI future.