DSN says it has impacted 500,000 learners in 5 years, plans to develop 2 million AI talents in Africa

Last week Friday was a memorable event for the team as Data Science Nigeria (DSN) celebrates five years of innovation and impact as it pursues its overall goal of raising one million Artificial Intelligence (AI) talents and leading the development of AI solutions that enhance the quality of life and wellbeing of over two billion people in emerging markets.

4 years ago, Mr Adekanmbi unveiled the team’s agenda to guests in Lagos and has continued to drive its vision through annual agenda/plans. At a celebration event, the team announced that it has reached over 500,000 online and offline learners, coupled with high-impact research papers which have been showcased at the world’s leading AI conferences.

DSN’s geospatial powered retail optimization platform, SpotOn has experimented at scale while its EdTech adaptive learning engine has supported over eight million learners across Nigeria. DSN solution delivery platform has supported world-class organizations like Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mastercard Foundation, AI Commons, World Bank, Chevron Nigeria, Shell Nigeria, Access Bank and others.

According to Bayo Adekanmbi, the founder and lead mentor, DSN’s work won academic and social impact awards across the world and has been showcased as a best practice in delivering scalable learning, research and social good solutions development.

One of DSN’s papers on the use of AI to address financial inclusion was the best poster at the 21st edition of 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, New York, United States.

He also shared some of the team’s innovations designed to achieve its inclusive learning drive. This includes a learning platform with over 20,000 AI learning videos– publicly available content from top international universities- curated in external drive and distributed freely across Nigeria to address the challenge of poor internet.

“In addition, we published the first Artificial Intelligence book for kids in Africa, which is currently 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 with industry-level project participation, hackathon, learning clubs, professional learning groups, primary/secondary learning clubs and a female-only AI learning support network. 

As it marks its fifth anniversary, DSN is taking on a dual business model where it monetizes its research work for the sustainability of its non-profit efforts. Its new extension, DSN AI Innovation Limited, will operate in Nigeria and the United Kingdom and focus on advanced AI solutions development and deployment in the eras of Fintech, EdTech and MedTech.

It’s consulting and training practice will be driven through an expanded network of local and international partners and independent consultants, as the business welcomes expert partners to support its delivery in a shared value business construct.

In addition, DSN also unveiled its new logo to reflect its global positioning and expansion beyond Nigeria. The logo, which has the global map of the world and emphasizes the DSN short name identity, reflects the organization’s ambition to deliver high-impact AI solutions across the world while also expanding its free training and research network across many countries 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”

The new partnership business models mean that DSN will work with more independent consultants and experts across the world on an on-demand basis while keeping 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 the largest AI learning/research community in Africa.