How can AI help bridge the mental health service gap in Africa?

Through this project, teams from Uganda and Tanzania implemented AI-powered call center solutions at national mental health hospitals, leveraging Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to analyze conversations in local languages and generate insights that support better service delivery.

Some of the key achievements include:

• Developing ASR models for Ugandan-accented English and Luganda mental health recordings
• Assessing the quality of mental health conversations
• Detecting mental health topics from speech recordings
• Generating escalations and decision-support insights for healthcare practitioners

The project also reinforced important lessons: local-language AI improves accessibility, user-centered design builds trust, and privacy and ethics must remain at the center of AI-driven healthcare innovation.

As Africa continues to embrace digital health solutions, initiatives like these demonstrate the potential of AI to strengthen mental healthcare systems and improve access to quality care for underserved communities.

View related projects

Makerere University College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS) is the main ICT Training, Research and Consultancy Centre in Makerere University. The College has six Academic departments comprising of the Department of Computer Science, Department of Networks, Department of Information Technology, Department of Information Systems, Department of Library and Information Sciences, and the Department of Records and Archives management.

In addition to the mainstream degree programmes, CoCIS has a specialized Center for Innovations and Professional Skills Development (CIPSD) which delivers state-of-art training in ICT e.g. the Cisco Networking Academy for Cisco related courses, the Microsoft IT Academy Program for Microsoft related courses, International Computer Driving License course, Oracle Certified Training center for Oracle, Linux and Unix Training center. CIPSD also offers Machine Learning, Big Data Analytics, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence (AI) as online courses.

Click link below for start dates and to register:

https://forms.gle/eTVwcAfBGXaVLL9b7

• All courses are at affordable fees catering for Students, Vacists, Professionals and
• Anyone who wants to start a career in ICT or polish his/her ICT skills.

Contact Information

E-mail: psd.cis@mak.ac.ug
Call/WhatsApp: +256 752 779964 | +256 701 806656 | +256 752 373023
URL: https://cocis.mak.ac.ug/cipsd/

What happens when AI speaks African languages?

The Makerere University Centre for Artificial Intelligence (Mak-AI) Multilingual AI for Health Challenge is now open on Zindi; inviting innovators, researchers, and developers to build AI systems that answer health questions in African languages such as Luganda, Kiswahili, Akan, and Amharic.

This challenge focuses on improving access to trusted maternal, sexual, and reproductive health information for communities across Africa, especially in low-resource settings.

• Win up to $5,000 USD
• Fully Online
• Open until 21 July 2026

If you’re passionate about AI, language technologies, and building solutions with real social impact, this is your chance to contribute.

Register here: https://bit.ly/4u5VrFG