The Sahara Code Switch Africa Challenge

Voice AI built for how Africans actually speak. That is the problem this challenge is trying to solve. 🎙️🌍

The Sahara CodeSwitch Africa Challenge, organised by Intron Voice AI, is calling on developers, AI researchers, startups, product teams, and builders across Africa and the diaspora to build real-world voice AI applications that work across African languages — specifically targeting code-switching, the natural blending of two or more languages in everyday speech.

A total prize pool of $10,000 USD is on offer across five competition tracks:
🏥 Health — clinical documentation, patient intake, maternal health, hospital workflows
⚖️ Legal and Public Services — court transcription, legal aid, citizen services, justice access
💳 Fintech, Telco and Customer Experience — voice banking, KYC, payments, customer support
🌾 Agriculture and Education — farmer advisory, tutoring, local-language education
🌐 Other High-Impact Use Cases — humanitarian response, accessibility, media, commerce

Submissions must build a voice AI application that completes a downstream task — not simply convert speech to text — and benchmark performance across at least three speech models, including the Intron Sahara API.

Participants gain access to Sahara v2.5, releasing in August 2026 in research preview, covering 12 African language pairs.

Who should enter:
✅ Developers, engineers, and AI/ML researchers
✅ Startups and product teams
✅ Student teams and open-source builders
✅ NGOs and civic-tech teams
✅ Solo builders or teams of up to 5

⏰ Registration closes: September 15, 2026
🏆 Winners announced: October 1, 2026

Find Details Here: https://lnkd.in/g28peDE8