Telkom wants to be known for more than the networks it runs. At a United Nations technology summit in Geneva, group CEO Serame Taukobong announced the company will invest about R100 million to set up a Telkom AI Institute aimed at equipping South Africans with AI and digital skills. Telkom, one of South Africa's largest telecoms companies, is still laying the groundwork for the institute. It is a notable pivot for a company still best known for dial tones and data, and a pledge, for now, more than a building.
From connectivity to capability
The pitch is that access alone isn't enough. "Connectivity without capability only gets South Africa halfway there," Taukobong said. "We have spent years building the networks that connect this country. The Telkom AI Institute is our commitment to ensuring that connectivity translates into skills, jobs and opportunity, starting with the South Africans who stand to gain the most and who have had the least access until now." The institute is framed as part of Telkom's Vision 2030 strategy, under which the group wants to expand beyond building telecoms infrastructure into skills development and innovation. The pledge will be tracked through the International Telecommunication Union's Partner2Connect coalition, a global effort that has drawn more than 1,000 commitments from 149 countries, with projects under way in more than 190 countries.
The missing details
For now, the announcement is long on ambition and short on specifics. It is Telkom's headline pledge at the summit, aimed squarely at South Africa's digital skills gap. Telkom hasn't said where the institute will be based, when it will open, how the R100 million will be spent, or whether it will run through university partnerships or as a standalone training platform. The ITU estimates that achieving universal, meaningful connectivity by 2030 will require between $2.6 trillion and $2.8 trillion in global investment, a measure of the gap Telkom says it wants to help close.
The move lands as governments and companies pour money into AI skills, and as South Africa works on its own national AI policy. Whether Telkom's institute becomes a genuine skills engine or a well-meaning pledge will depend on the details it has yet to share.
