MGI Tech signed an MoU with South African research and government bodies to sequence up to 110,000 genomes and establish the country’s first national genomic reference. The program installs MGI’s DNBseq‑T7 platform at the SAMRC Genomics Center in Cape Town and will pilot 10,000 genomes to create a foundation for population‑specific variant interpretation. Organizers plan to expand into long‑read sequencing, single‑cell and spatial omics to support regional precision‑medicine initiatives.