AISaturdays’ Ambassador on Ibadan as Next ICT Frontier in Western Nigeria

In this WETi (What Expert Tells Infoprations), Ahmed Olanrewaju speaks about Ibadan, the largest city in West Africa, of being the next ICT hub in Western Nigeria and its primary place in providing Tech Talents to Lagos ICT hub.

What is the main reason behind AISaturdays in Ibadan?

I was a beneficiary of AI Saturday in Lagos, I attended the classes for 16 weeks, a lot of knowledge was gained, met a lot of people in the data science and machine learning space, participated in two different competitions. Having spent more than N100, 000 and a lot of risk shuttling between Lagos and Ibadan every Saturdays, I felt strongly that it is really worth creating and driving a community in the city of Ibadan to give more upcoming researchers and professionals more opportunity to learn.

Why such programme is being held in Ibadan despite the fact that it is not accustom with ICT like Lagos?

The truth of the matter is that, any city can grow to be like Lagos, all we need is to change our attitude and begin to accept that we can create more opportunities and turn the city into another technology powered city like Lagos. We can change the narratives in Ibadan from the city known for all manners of Amala Joints (Restaurants) to another tech haven city. Another dimension is that Ibadan produces great developers and programmers for the Lagos market and other cities of the world and many of them still have the homes in Ibadan where they reside on weekends and holidays. Lagos tech initiatives are privately driven with massive support and initiatives from the governments.

What have been the successes of the event thus far?

We have made very slow progress in realizing our objectives, which are still commendable considering the limited resources and time constraint. The increase in the number of attendees at Data Science Nigeria Boot camp (Nigeria’s foremost destination for world class talents in Data Science and Machine Learning), a significant number of attendees at the Data Science Africa Summer School and Workshop in Abuja and a member participation during Data Science Africa and Summer School in 2018 are part of the key successes recorded so far. We have also had a member who attended the Access Bank problem solving challenge. We have successfully hosted the first cohort of AI Saturdays Ibadan which lasted for 16 weeks with a peak attendance of 40 participants and also got Google to support the initiative to an extent. A good number of members also had the opportunity for their papers to be accepted at the Black in AI workshop and Women in Machine Learning, co-hosted by NeurIPS in Montreal Quebec, Canada, 2018.

Participants during one of the Saturdays

For the learners, to what extent do you believe they are ready to apply their knowledge and skills within the city, to advance it technologically?

The challenge is the city, more opportunities for application of knowledge happen in Lagos, considering that many of the companies have their offices in Lagos and Abuja where decisions are taken. Ibadan city is still far behind in terms of providing an enabling environment where this new phase of knowledge is being appreciated. Currently, we are witnessing a rise in interest from other discipline and most especially the university administration is beginning to appreciate and also support the initiatives. On the part of the learners, they are already participating in global competition to solve global challenges.

Are you seeing the event as an opportunity to place the city on the ICT map in the country and beyond?

Certainly, Ibadan is already on the global map when it comes to ICT which range from web development, networking to artificial intelligence. The city has produced many experts and professionals over the years and more are still coming on board to take their rightful place.

Are you saying businesses and people will have a pool of IT talents for their business and personal needs?

There are limited talents in the ICT space generally, more and more solutions are being developed and there is a need for more people to come on board.