Mahuna
Akplogan

Mahuna Akplogan is one of the leading figures in artificial intelligence in Benin. An engineer-researcher and entrepreneur, he belongs to that category of practitioners in whom scientific rigour, strategic thinking and care for teams stem from the same demand: to understand in order to better serve.

Appointed in May 2026 as Minister of Digital Transformation and Innovation, in charge of the national artificial intelligence strategy by President Romuald Wadagni, his mission is to lead the technological roadmap in service of public and private policies, and to build a dynamic, inclusive and competitive innovation ecosystem — a Benin poised to become a technology exporter. Behind these objectives lies a simple conviction: technology is only worth what it concretely changes in people's lives, and above all through its contribution to eradicating extreme poverty.

His career was built at the crossroads of research and action. Doubly qualified, an engineer and master's degree holder from the University of Technology of Compiègne, he holds a doctorate in artificial intelligence from the University of Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier (Doctoral School of Mathematics, Computer Science and Telecommunications), and a minor in the philosophy of cognitive technologies — a discipline that led him early on to question the meaning of what he builds. His expertise covers innovation management and research and development, in service of solving complex, high-impact problems.

With more than fifteen years of experience, he has led large-scale innovation programmes in demanding environments, combining strategic vision with the operational execution of major projects. From this experience, he has drawn a measured certainty: research only makes sense when it returns to the concrete, where the competitiveness of organisations and the strategic autonomy of nations are at stake.

As a committed entrepreneur, he is co-founder of the iSheero association, a pan-African initiative dedicated to developing excellence in data science, data engineering and cloud infrastructure. This commitment stems from a more personal conviction: the desire to pass on what he spent years learning, and to contribute to the emergence of a generation capable of meeting the continent's challenges.

Committed to developing talent, Mahuna Akplogan devotes his work to knowledge transfer and the building of sustainable ecosystems, where technological excellence, societal impact and organisational growth converge. Ultimately, what guides his approach is less ambition than a form of fidelity: to knowledge, to those who come after, and to the idea that the value of a work is measured by the mark it leaves.