ABOUT US

ABOUT US

ABOUT US

Rooted in Africa. Building the digital home for its languages.

OUR ESSENCE

OUR ESSENCE

OUR ESSENCE

The Meaning and Significance of the Name “Khaya”

Khaya stands for the "African Mahogany" Tree - Khaya Senegalensis. It is in use by many African communities for a variety of purposes - furniture, medicinal, etc. We thought it was a good metaphor for how useful we envision our product to be. Khaya also stands for "home" in several African languages, which is another entendre. Khaya AI aims to be a sustaining resource for Africans in the digital future. Khaya AI is building a digital home for African languages, a strong, sustaining, and deeply rooted resource for Africa's digital future. 

“Bridging Words, Empowering Communities, One Language at a Time”

MEET THE TEAM

MEET THE TEAM

MEET THE TEAM

The Khaya AI Team

Image of Paul Azunre

Paul Azunre

Co-Founder

Paul Azunre holds a PhD in Computer Science from MIT and has served as a Principal Investigator on several DARPA research programs. He founded Algorine Inc., a Research Lab dedicated to advancing AI/ML and identifying scenarios where they can have a significant social impact. Paul also co-founded Ghana NLP - an initiative focused on using NLP and Transfer Learning with Ghanaian and other low-resource languages. He is the author of the book "Transfer Learning for NLP" by Manning Publications, one of the first books written on the subject of LLMs. His experience includes key roles at small fast-moving AI startups like New Knowledge and established tech giants like Oracle and D&B.

Image of Paul Azunre

Paul Azunre

Co-Founder

Paul Azunre holds a PhD in Computer Science from MIT and has served as a Principal Investigator on several DARPA research programs. He founded Algorine Inc., a Research Lab dedicated to advancing AI/ML and identifying scenarios where they can have a significant social impact. Paul also co-founded Ghana NLP - an initiative focused on using NLP and Transfer Learning with Ghanaian and other low-resource languages. He is the author of the book "Transfer Learning for NLP" by Manning Publications, one of the first books written on the subject of LLMs. His experience includes key roles at small fast-moving AI startups like New Knowledge and established tech giants like Oracle and D&B.

Image of Paul Azunre

Paul Azunre

Co-Founder

Paul Azunre holds a PhD in Computer Science from MIT and has served as a Principal Investigator on several DARPA research programs. He founded Algorine Inc., a Research Lab dedicated to advancing AI/ML and identifying scenarios where they can have a significant social impact. Paul also co-founded Ghana NLP - an initiative focused on using NLP and Transfer Learning with Ghanaian and other low-resource languages. He is the author of the book "Transfer Learning for NLP" by Manning Publications, one of the first books written on the subject of LLMs. His experience includes key roles at small fast-moving AI startups like New Knowledge and established tech giants like Oracle and D&B.

Image of Lawrence Asamoah Adu-Gyamfi

Lawrence Asamoah Adu-Gyamfi

Co-Founder

Lawrence Adu-Gyamfi is Khaya's Technical and Product Lead. As a core Research Scientist at GhanaNLP since 2020, he managed the full AI lifecycle for our core technologies. He led the data collection team in building foundational datasets, was directly involved in model development, and architected the production-ready APIs for Machine Translation, ASR, and TTS. An engineer by training with an MSc in Data Science, Lawrence also brings deep enterprise AI experience from his research in ML explainability and Uncertainty Quantification at leading European technology and energy firms.

Image of Lawrence Asamoah Adu-Gyamfi

Lawrence Asamoah Adu-Gyamfi

Co-Founder

Lawrence Adu-Gyamfi is Khaya's Technical and Product Lead. As a core Research Scientist at GhanaNLP since 2020, he managed the full AI lifecycle for our core technologies. He led the data collection team in building foundational datasets, was directly involved in model development, and architected the production-ready APIs for Machine Translation, ASR, and TTS. An engineer by training with an MSc in Data Science, Lawrence also brings deep enterprise AI experience from his research in ML explainability and Uncertainty Quantification at leading European technology and energy firms.

Image of Lawrence Asamoah Adu-Gyamfi

Lawrence Asamoah Adu-Gyamfi

Co-Founder

Lawrence Adu-Gyamfi is Khaya's Technical and Product Lead. As a core Research Scientist at GhanaNLP since 2020, he managed the full AI lifecycle for our core technologies. He led the data collection team in building foundational datasets, was directly involved in model development, and architected the production-ready APIs for Machine Translation, ASR, and TTS. An engineer by training with an MSc in Data Science, Lawrence also brings deep enterprise AI experience from his research in ML explainability and Uncertainty Quantification at leading European technology and energy firms.

Image of Joel Budu

Joel Budu

Co-Founder

Joel has worked as the Director of Engineering for GhanaNLP since 2020, leading the development of the infrastructure for the model serving backends and products that serve thousands of people all over the world. He has over 17 years of experience building scalable and production ready systems in Natural language processing, Computer Vision and Software engineering. He holds a masters degree in Artificial Intelligence and Applications from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

Image of Joel Budu

Joel Budu

Co-Founder

Joel has worked as the Director of Engineering for GhanaNLP since 2020, leading the development of the infrastructure for the model serving backends and products that serve thousands of people all over the world. He has over 17 years of experience building scalable and production ready systems in Natural language processing, Computer Vision and Software engineering. He holds a masters degree in Artificial Intelligence and Applications from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

Image of Joel Budu

Joel Budu

Co-Founder

Joel has worked as the Director of Engineering for GhanaNLP since 2020, leading the development of the infrastructure for the model serving backends and products that serve thousands of people all over the world. He has over 17 years of experience building scalable and production ready systems in Natural language processing, Computer Vision and Software engineering. He holds a masters degree in Artificial Intelligence and Applications from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

Image of Dr. Stephen Edward Moore

Dr. Stephen Edward Moore

Co-Founder

Dr. Moore is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Mathematics, University of Cape Coast. His research focuses on Computational Science and Engineering. He is a trained computational mathematician and numerical analyst. After completing his undergraduate studies at KNUST, Ghana, he was awarded a European Union scholarship to pursue graduate studies in Industrial Mathematics in both Germany and Austria. He subsequently completed his phd in Austria. During his time in Austria, Dr. Moore held several key positions — including research engineer, research scientist, consultant, and manager — across various engineering firms such as Prozess Optimal, Engineering Software Steyr, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He is the University of Cape Coast's chief AI strategist and a  representative at UNESCO's International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI). He is the co-founder for Ghana NLP, the developer's of Khaya AI. He has contributed to building Ghana's AI ecosystem including the National AI strategy and National AI practitioners guide. Dr. Moore is a visiting professor at Pan African University of Science and Technology, Kenya and the African Institute of Mathematics, Senegal. He has trained over 8 PhD students and more than 20 masters students. Dr. Moore has received several awards from local and international organizations like Google, RUFORUM, UCC, EU, etc. He has spoken as a plenary speaker at several international and local workshops and conferences all over the world. He supervises several graduate students across Africa, Europe and America and organizes  workshops, conferences and seminars. He collaborates with several organizations such as Google, PATH, Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, etc.

Image of Dr. Stephen Edward Moore

Dr. Stephen Edward Moore

Co-Founder

Dr. Moore is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Mathematics, University of Cape Coast. His research focuses on Computational Science and Engineering. He is a trained computational mathematician and numerical analyst. After completing his undergraduate studies at KNUST, Ghana, he was awarded a European Union scholarship to pursue graduate studies in Industrial Mathematics in both Germany and Austria. He subsequently completed his phd in Austria. During his time in Austria, Dr. Moore held several key positions — including research engineer, research scientist, consultant, and manager — across various engineering firms such as Prozess Optimal, Engineering Software Steyr, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He is the University of Cape Coast's chief AI strategist and a  representative at UNESCO's International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI). He is the co-founder for Ghana NLP, the developer's of Khaya AI. He has contributed to building Ghana's AI ecosystem including the National AI strategy and National AI practitioners guide. Dr. Moore is a visiting professor at Pan African University of Science and Technology, Kenya and the African Institute of Mathematics, Senegal. He has trained over 8 PhD students and more than 20 masters students. Dr. Moore has received several awards from local and international organizations like Google, RUFORUM, UCC, EU, etc. He has spoken as a plenary speaker at several international and local workshops and conferences all over the world. He supervises several graduate students across Africa, Europe and America and organizes  workshops, conferences and seminars. He collaborates with several organizations such as Google, PATH, Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, etc.

Image of Dr. Stephen Edward Moore

Dr. Stephen Edward Moore

Co-Founder

Dr. Moore is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Mathematics, University of Cape Coast. His research focuses on Computational Science and Engineering. He is a trained computational mathematician and numerical analyst. After completing his undergraduate studies at KNUST, Ghana, he was awarded a European Union scholarship to pursue graduate studies in Industrial Mathematics in both Germany and Austria. He subsequently completed his phd in Austria. During his time in Austria, Dr. Moore held several key positions — including research engineer, research scientist, consultant, and manager — across various engineering firms such as Prozess Optimal, Engineering Software Steyr, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He is the University of Cape Coast's chief AI strategist and a  representative at UNESCO's International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI). He is the co-founder for Ghana NLP, the developer's of Khaya AI. He has contributed to building Ghana's AI ecosystem including the National AI strategy and National AI practitioners guide. Dr. Moore is a visiting professor at Pan African University of Science and Technology, Kenya and the African Institute of Mathematics, Senegal. He has trained over 8 PhD students and more than 20 masters students. Dr. Moore has received several awards from local and international organizations like Google, RUFORUM, UCC, EU, etc. He has spoken as a plenary speaker at several international and local workshops and conferences all over the world. He supervises several graduate students across Africa, Europe and America and organizes  workshops, conferences and seminars. He collaborates with several organizations such as Google, PATH, Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, etc.

Image of Atsu Agbemabiase

Atsu Agbemabiase

Co-founder

Atsu Agbemabiase has been a political risk & intelligence, business, project management, corporate governance, finance, compliance, due diligence, and investment professional for 15 plus years. He is also into Natural Language Processing (NLP) and practical applications. He is a board member of Khaya AI and is in charge of legal & compliance matters. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Steering Committee for the UNESCO Initiative: The West African Alliance for the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (WAA-IDIL), a role he commenced in April 2025. He is also very active with the operations of the Mfantsipim Old Boys Association (MOBA).

Image of Atsu Agbemabiase

Atsu Agbemabiase

Co-founder

Atsu Agbemabiase has been a political risk & intelligence, business, project management, corporate governance, finance, compliance, due diligence, and investment professional for 15 plus years. He is also into Natural Language Processing (NLP) and practical applications. He is a board member of Khaya AI and is in charge of legal & compliance matters. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Steering Committee for the UNESCO Initiative: The West African Alliance for the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (WAA-IDIL), a role he commenced in April 2025. He is also very active with the operations of the Mfantsipim Old Boys Association (MOBA).

Image of Atsu Agbemabiase

Atsu Agbemabiase

Co-founder

Atsu Agbemabiase has been a political risk & intelligence, business, project management, corporate governance, finance, compliance, due diligence, and investment professional for 15 plus years. He is also into Natural Language Processing (NLP) and practical applications. He is a board member of Khaya AI and is in charge of legal & compliance matters. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Steering Committee for the UNESCO Initiative: The West African Alliance for the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (WAA-IDIL), a role he commenced in April 2025. He is also very active with the operations of the Mfantsipim Old Boys Association (MOBA).

Image of Nana Akwasi Asare

Nana Akwasi Asare

AI Research Engineer

Akwasi loves building AI tools that understand African languages and also advances healthcare. With experience in NLP and medical AI for low-resource settings, specifically Africa, he brings skills in building practical, inclusive technologies that make a real social impact at Khaya AI.

Image of Nana Akwasi Asare

Nana Akwasi Asare

AI Research Engineer

Akwasi loves building AI tools that understand African languages and also advances healthcare. With experience in NLP and medical AI for low-resource settings, specifically Africa, he brings skills in building practical, inclusive technologies that make a real social impact at Khaya AI.

Image of Nana Akwasi Asare

Nana Akwasi Asare

AI Research Engineer

Akwasi loves building AI tools that understand African languages and also advances healthcare. With experience in NLP and medical AI for low-resource settings, specifically Africa, he brings skills in building practical, inclusive technologies that make a real social impact at Khaya AI.

Image of Naafi Ibrahim

Naafi Ibrahim

AI Engineer

Naafi is a Machine Learning Engineer based in Paris, France. He's experienced in building Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools for low-resourced African languages. He's also enjoyed a brief stint at the Inria SCOOL Team where he worked on applying RL techniques to designing healthcare interventions. At Khaya AI, Naafi contributes to building/advancing NLP-based tools to bridge the linguistic gap across the African continent.

Image of Naafi Ibrahim

Naafi Ibrahim

AI Engineer

Naafi is a Machine Learning Engineer based in Paris, France. He's experienced in building Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools for low-resourced African languages. He's also enjoyed a brief stint at the Inria SCOOL Team where he worked on applying RL techniques to designing healthcare interventions. At Khaya AI, Naafi contributes to building/advancing NLP-based tools to bridge the linguistic gap across the African continent.

Image of Naafi Ibrahim

Naafi Ibrahim

AI Engineer

Naafi is a Machine Learning Engineer based in Paris, France. He's experienced in building Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools for low-resourced African languages. He's also enjoyed a brief stint at the Inria SCOOL Team where he worked on applying RL techniques to designing healthcare interventions. At Khaya AI, Naafi contributes to building/advancing NLP-based tools to bridge the linguistic gap across the African continent.

Image of David Nintang

David Nintang

Software Developer

David studies Engineering and Computer Science at Grambling State University in Louisiana. With prior experiences in competitive robotics programming and software development at startups, David brings strong, diverse technical skills to support the Khaya AI team.

Image of David Nintang

David Nintang

Software Developer

David studies Engineering and Computer Science at Grambling State University in Louisiana. With prior experiences in competitive robotics programming and software development at startups, David brings strong, diverse technical skills to support the Khaya AI team.

Image of David Nintang

David Nintang

Software Developer

David studies Engineering and Computer Science at Grambling State University in Louisiana. With prior experiences in competitive robotics programming and software development at startups, David brings strong, diverse technical skills to support the Khaya AI team.

The Founding and Inspiration Behind Khaya AI 

About five years ago, a group of Ghanaian researchers united to address the lack of language technologies for Ghanaian languages on major platforms like Google and Microsoft. We built the app Khaya, which was well received in Ghana and highlighted a wider need across Africa. Growing from GhanaNLP’s open-source efforts to preserve African languages, Khaya AI was founded to scale this mission. Our company focuses on delivering enterprise-grade solutions while retaining our community-driven, open-source roots, with a strong commitment to African ownership of language data and technology in the digital space.

Khaya AI’s Mission

Our mission is to build a digital home for African languages and bridge the digital divide by creating human-centered language technologies that understand and speak the languages of our communities. We aim to empower millions of people to access information, education, and opportunities in the languages they know best, enabling African cultures and communities to flourish and shaping the future of natural language processing through an African lens. 

Our Story Timeline

Ghana NLP and Algorine released the first AI‑powered translation app for Ghanaian languages

2021

Ghana NLP and Algorine released the first AI‑powered translation app for Ghanaian languages

2021

Ghana NLP and Algorine released the first AI‑powered translation app for Ghanaian languages

2021

Khaya AI was born from the pioneering work of GhanaNLP, a passionate open-source community dedicated to preserving and digitizing African languages

2025

Khaya AI was born from the pioneering work of GhanaNLP, a passionate open-source community dedicated to preserving and digitizing African languages

2025

Khaya AI was born from the pioneering work of GhanaNLP, a passionate open-source community dedicated to preserving and digitizing African languages

2025

Khaya is using technology to translate, preserve, and teach African languages, an effort that remains rare but vitally important for the continent’s future

2025

Khaya is using technology to translate, preserve, and teach African languages, an effort that remains rare but vitally important for the continent’s future

2025

Khaya is using technology to translate, preserve, and teach African languages, an effort that remains rare but vitally important for the continent’s future

2025

Core Principles

Equity

Priorities languages ignored by major platforms; expand coverage based on community needs, not market size.

Quality

Strive for world‑class accuracy and continually benchmark against global leaders.

Transparency

Share our research openly and invite independent evaluation.

Collaboration

Partner with universities, language communities and volunteers to gather data and validate models.

Sustainability

Build business models that allow the work to continue through subscriptions and corporate partnerships.

Core Principles

Equity

Priorities languages ignored by major platforms; expand coverage based on community needs, not market size.

Quality

Strive for world‑class accuracy and continually benchmark against global leaders.

Transparency

Share our research openly and invite independent evaluation.

Collaboration

Partner with universities, language communities and volunteers to gather data and validate models.

Sustainability

Build business models that allow the work to continue through subscriptions and corporate partnerships.

Core Principles

Equity

Priorities languages ignored by major platforms; expand coverage based on community needs, not market size.

Quality

Strive for world‑class accuracy and continually benchmark against global leaders.

Transparency

Share our research openly and invite independent evaluation.

Collaboration

Partner with universities, language communities and volunteers to gather data and validate models.

Sustainability

Build business models that allow the work to continue through subscriptions and corporate partnerships.

OUR REWARDS

OUR REWARDS

OUR REWARDS

Achievements & impact

01

01

01

Text-to-Speech

Our Text-to-Speech tools currently cover 32 languages - that is more than approximately 350 million people across Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, Sierra Leone & Zimbabwe. 

02

02

02

First of it’s Kind

We were the first to put out translation, text to speech or ASR production systems for any Ghanaian language, and several Kenyan and Nigerian languages.

03

03

03

Performing Models

We currently have the best performing models in the area of translation, automatic speech recognition and text to speech and  undisputed African language tech pioneers. 

04

04

04

UNESCO Win

We recently won a UNESCO related award in 2025 for our work. 

OUR VISON

OUR VISON

OUR VISON

Khaya AI’s Vision for the Next Decade 

We imagine a future where every low-resourced language, no matter how obscure, has a home, true to the meaning of Khaya. Building on the progress we have made with Ghanaian languages, we aim to extend these successes across Africa, beginning with countries such as Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone.

We aim to build a future where language is never a barrier for Africans in communicating with others or with AI. Our vision is to remain at the forefront of global language AI innovation by creating solutions that go beyond simply adapting existing technologies.

We seek to drive original breakthroughs rooted in Africa’s unique contexts and needs. In doing so, we want to demonstrate that Ghanaian innovators can build wealth for their communities, lead the world in cutting-edge research, and shape a future where

Africans take full ownership of their languages in every aspect, from preservation to technological advancement. 

OUR SOLUTIONS

OUR SOLUTIONS

OUR SOLUTIONS

The Problem Khaya AI is Solving

Africa faces a major risk of being left behind in the digital future due to the limited online representation of its languages. In Ghana, for example, over 50 languages are largely invisible to online tools and services, creating a deep digital divide that disconnects millions from essential information and opportunities, from education to emergency support.

Khaya exists to change this. Founded five years ago when no major platform supported Ghanaian languages, Khaya is building AI-powered language technologies to connect African voices to the digital world. Our coverage already surpasses many global platforms. We prioritize cultural relevance and community empowerment, ensuring African languages and cultures thrive, evolve, and share in the benefits of the digital age by using technology to translate, preserve, and teach them.

WHY KHAYA AI

WHY KHAYA AI

WHY KHAYA AI

What Makes Khaya’s Technology Unique 

What sets Khaya apart is the expertise in data that we collect ourselves by experts in the languages, along with a curation of some of the best brains in the field when it comes to NLP in Ghana and Africa. Our API stands out for its quality and performance, offering reliable access to the most advanced African language technologies available. The models and products are developed and tested by people who know the languages these tools are built for.

This deep, human-in-the-loop collaboration allows our technology to capture the nuance, context, and culture that many competing solutions often overlook. The result is not just higher accuracy or better performance, but technology that feels authentic and truly serves its users. Also, our community-centered design and development approach ensures that our solutions address real local needs while maintaining high levels of accuracy. By curating high-quality data, we create models that are more efficient, smaller, and less energy intensive. 

Start Translating

Join thousands of individuals, developers and students in using Khaya AI for language translation.

Start Translating

Join thousands of individuals, developers and students in using Khaya AI for language translation.

Connect With Us

Copyright ©2025, Khaya AI. All rights reserved.

Connect With Us

Copyright ©2025, Khaya AI. All rights reserved.

Connect With Us

Copyright ©2025, Khaya AI. All rights reserved.