DSN says it has equipped 500,000 learners in 5 years, plans to establish 2 million AI talents in Africa
Last Friday was a memorable event for the team as Data Science Nigeria (DSN) celebrated five years of innovation and impact while pursuing its overall goal of raising one million Artificial Intelligence (AI) talents and leading the development of AI solutions that improve the quality of life and wellbeing of over two billion people in emerging markets.
Mr Adekanmbi unveiled the team’s agenda to guests in Lagos four years ago and has continued to drive its vision through annual agendas/plans. The team announced at a celebration event that it has reached over 500,000 online and offline learners, as well as high-impact research papers that have been showcased at the world’s leading AI conferences.
SpotOn, DSN’s geospatial-powered retail optimization platform, has experimented at scale, and its EdTech adaptive learning engine has served over eight million learners in Nigeria. The DSN solution delivery platform has aided world-class organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mastercard Foundation, AI Commons, World Bank, Chevron Nigeria, Shell Nigeria, Access Bank, and others.
DSN’s work, according to Bayo Adekanmbi, the founder and lead mentor, has won academic and social impact awards all over the world and has been highlighted as a best practice in delivering scalable learning, research, and social good solution development.
One of DSN’s papers on the use of AI to address financial inclusion was named the best poster at the ACM Conference on Economics and Computation (EC’ 20), the world’s premier conference on the interface of economics and computer science, organized by the Association for Computing Machinery in New York, United States.
He also shared some of the team’s innovations aimed at achieving the team’s inclusive learning goal. This includes a learning platform with over 20,000 AI learning videos–publicly available content from top international universities–curated in an external drive and freely distributed across Nigeria to address the issue of poor internet access.
“In addition, we published the first Artificial Intelligence book for children in Africa, which is now being distributed free through the train-the-teachers program to support massive adoption of digital skills across African schools,” he added.
The DSN learning delivery has also been expanded to include participation in industry-level projects, hackathons, learning clubs, professional learning groups, primary/secondary learning clubs, and a female-only AI learning support network.
As it approaches its fifth anniversary, DSN is implementing a dual business model in which it monetizes its research work to ensure the long-term viability of its non-profit efforts. Its new subsidiary, DSN AI Innovation Limited, will operate in Nigeria and the United Kingdom, focusing on the development and deployment of advanced AI solutions in the Fintech, EdTech, and MedTech eras.
Its consulting and training practice will be driven by an expanded network of local and international partners, as well as independent consultants, as the company welcomes expert partners to support its delivery in a shared value business model.
DSN also debuted a new logo to reflect its global positioning and expansion beyond Nigeria. The logo, which features a global map and emphasizes the DSN short name identity, reflects the organization’s ambition to deliver high-impact AI solutions globally while also expanding its free training and research network beyond Nigeria.
Bayo Adekanmbi said:
“This is an important moment in our evolution. We are becoming a distributed talent company with a global impact. We are excited about the opportunity to translate some of our works into products that will add value while also supporting our sustainability. I am also excited about the opportunity to outsource our projects to multiple partners as we co-create value at scale”
DSN will work with more independent consultants and experts around the world on an as-needed basis under the new partnership business models, while maintaining a streamlined structure powered by the best of the best full-time staff (shareholders), investors, expert project consultants, interns, strategic partners/mentors, strategic delivery partner companies, and Africa’s largest AI learning/research community.
