Data Science Nigeria (DSN) has reaffirmed its commitment to raise quality students in Nigeria who can use machine learning and artificial intelligence to solve Nigerian problems.
Olubayo Adekanmbi, the Convener of Data Science Nigeria (DSN) stated this on Wednesday at the third edition of the Data Science Nigeria (DSN) Artificial Intelligence (AI) bootcamp, held in Lagos.
Adekanmbi explained that DSN objective is to raise quality students who can create solutions that can transform businesses and create jobs.
According to him, “we have 10 leading (global) data scientists that flew in from USA, South Africa, UK, etc, to teach students in the next five days, so that we will be able to raise quality students in Nigeria who can use machine learning and artificial intelligence to solve Nigerian problems.
“They create solutions that can transform to businesses and create jobs”.
He added that they want to complement the ‘traditional’ learning that Nigerian students are exposed to in schools by introducing global topics and knowledge that are not yet available based on the current syllabus in the country.
“The idea behind this Artificial Intelligence (AI) bootcamp was based on the need to complement the ‘traditional’ learning that Nigerian students are exposed to in schools.
“We understand there are global topics and knowledge that are not yet available in the country based on the current syllabus.
“To tackle this, we worked with experts to create a tailor-made syllabus that can allow must of these people (students) to learn and be at the same level as their colleagues anywhere in the world which they had to study for 90 days,” he added.
He further stated that the participating students were selected from 95 schools in Nigeria of which the best 150 students were selected for the five days bootcamp.
He thanked Microsoft for being the lead sponsor of the event which he attributed to Microsoft’s commitment to AI capacity building.
Adekanmbi stressed that they use Microsoft’s Azure software that allows for end to end capacity in building on Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence.
Speaking at the event, Mr. Akin Banuso, Microsoft Nigeria Country Manager, said that Microsoft’s AI tools are rapidly changing how financial institutions operate, manage data, and interact with customers.
He added that the revolution brought by AI – a blend of three advanced technologies: machine learning, natural language processing and cognitive computing – has huge implications for the financial services industry in Nigeria.
According to him, “With the use of modern tools like Microsoft’s Azure Machine Learning platform, Financial Service Providers (FSPs) can crunch large volumes of data faster and more accurately, which considerably lessens time-to-market to deliver products and services.
“AI has the potential to advance nearly every field of human endeavour and address countless societal challenges.
“This is why we are investing in not only making the technology more accessible, but also building capacity in the use of machine learning concepts to address analytical gaps in financial inclusion and other areas,” he stated.
To build this capacity, Microsoft, through its 4Afrika Initiative, has since 2013 been aggressively upskilling the African developer community in their use of modern technologies.
Through its 16 AppFactory academies (including two in Nigeria), Interns4Afrika, MySkills4Afrika, Microsoft Virtual Academy and AI PopUp Lab programmes, it is pairing developers with technical experts to gain skills in AI, cloud computing, secure coding, machine learning, bot framework and data analytics – and encouraging them to innovate in fields such as financial services.
Expanding further on the features of Microsoft’s portfolio of AI tools and services, Mr Banuso said that one of the challenges of FSPs is how to capture the unbanked population in the informal sector as they usually do not have formal identifiers.
He noted that with the AI and machine learning capabilities offered by Microsoft Azure, FSPs can use facial recognition algorithms to eliminate duplication of persons.