Zummit Africa: A Story of Progress in Democratizing AI

Zummit Africa was founded with a mission to democratize AI in Africa. In the year 2021, we recognized that AI had the potential to transform Africa’s economy and society, but only if it was widely adopted and used. However, we also recognized that there were many challenges to AI adoption in Africa, including data scarcity, a lack of skilled AI engineers, and the high cost of developing and deploying AI solutions.

To address these challenges, Zummit Africa set out to build an AI API marketplace. This marketplace would provide a platform for organizations to get access to a variety of AI models in the form of APIs, which they could then use to solve their business problems. This would help to significantly reduce the cost of AI adoption for organizations or startups, and it would also provide a source of revenue for AI engineers and companies that sell their solutions in the marketplace.

However, Zummit Africa soon faced another challenge: there were very few AI models available in the marketplace, and there was little attraction from potential users. This was due to the lack of skilled AI engineers in Africa. An ideal marketplace should have buyers and sellers, but due to a lack of knowledge about AI, these two were lacking in the marketplace.
The project is presently on hold and would be revived when we have a bigger market, which we are joining hands to create in Africa.

To address this challenge, Zummit Africa decided to start providing training in data science and AI. Over the past 2 years, Zummit has consistently been helping African youths become impeccable AI and software engineers. Artificial intelligence has taken the world by storm; the advancement has been tremendous and swift. However, Africa has been left behind; we are nowhere to be found on the map of AI superpowers. There is a lot of good this technology can bring, and we are focused on helping young Africans gain the skills. The company has trained hundreds of young Africans in data science and AI, and many of these graduates have gone on to land jobs in the data space and software development.

Zummit Africa’s success in training AI engineers is helping to create a more vibrant AI ecosystem in Africa. As more and more AI engineers are trained, more AI models will be developed and deployed, making AI more accessible and affordable for organizations across the continent. This has been our greatest win.

Africa’s greatest asset is our human capital. Africa has the highest youth population in the world. According to global research carried out by McKinsey, Africa will add 796 million people to the global workforce and be home to the youngest population by 2050. The rate of unemployment is at a staggering high. According to research by the African Development Bank, 263 million young Africans will lack an economic stake by 2025.

With Africa’s population expected to nearly double to 2.5 billion people by 2050, the continent presents myriad opportunities for robust, inclusive growth that harnesses its rich natural resources and abundant human potential to increase prosperity not only in Africa but around the world.

Our motivation at Zummit Africa is simple: to empower young Africans through artificial intelligence and software engineering skills, so they can create a better future for themselves and their communities.

We have chosen to focus on education because it is essential to the spread of technology and people empowerment;

• Education can help create a pipeline of skilled AI workers in Africa. This will enable African companies to develop and deploy AI solutions that meet their specific needs.
• Education can help raise awareness of AI among the African public. This will help to create a more supportive environment for the adoption of AI technologies.
• Education can help build capacity for AI research in Africa. This will enable African researchers to contribute to the global development of AI technologies.

To help train even more Africans, we are adopting the community-based learning system. A community-based learning system is unlike a regular teaching system. Community-based learning is a high-impact practice that can improve student retention and engagement and help students better absorb, retain, and transfer knowledge. This is the model we are adopting in our training to help get the best out of our learners.

According to extensive research by the University of Waterloo, Canada, students experience higher levels of engagement and take a deeper approach to learning when they are able to apply what they are studying to address a real-world problem. They are better able to apply theory to the specific project. They have a deeper understanding of the subject matter. They can improve critical thinking, problem solving, presentation, analytical, teamwork, and interpersonal skills. They can experience what it is like to work on real problems relevant to their discipline and reflect on that learning in a safe and supportive environment.
At Zummit, we have testified to the impactful outcome this learning process has had on our trainees.

So what makes us different from our competitors?

• It is our attachment to our learners. Our motivation is simple: to empower young Africans through artificial intelligence and software engineering skills, so they can create a better future for themselves and their communities.
• Our training system is unlike the regular; we adopt the high-impact practice for best results.
• We provide peer programming for our learners. Experts in the field of AI and software engineering work with our learners in what we call “office hours.” Here, the expert helps the learner understand how the different concepts they are learning are implemented in their different organizations. This can include writing code and building AI models together.
• After the training period, you remain a member of our community alongside many others. The community fills the swiftly growing need to share real-world machine learning operations and software engineering best practices with engineers in the field.
• Our end goal is to help our learners land jobs so as to improve their lifestyle and help their communities. We are working with recruiters to get our learners job placements. We just want to see our learners grow; it gives us joy.

Our program managers have decades of experience in the fields of AI and software engineering, and they are eager to share this knowledge with you.
Our head of AI curriculum, Mr. Segun Adelowo, former head of data science at Interswitch and presently working as a senior machine learning engineer at Newcross Healthcare, where he provides technical leadership for all data science and AI projects across the organization, He brings over 15 years of experience as an AI software engineer. He also serves as a member of the Zummit Africa board of advisors, where he provides mentorship to the management of the organization. His mantra is to ‘leave people better than he met them’.

Our head of software engineering curriculum, Mr. Omeiza Owuda, is an experienced software developer with nine years under his belt. He has been able to acquire technical, leadership, and management experience in different capacities as a senior software developer, a principal software developer, and a software development manager. He is currently the CTO at Zummit Africa. He has mentored developers who are presently working in leading firms in Nigeria.

It is our pleasure to present to you our rebranded Zummit Africa. Education should be accessible to everyone, no matter their financial status, as this is the tool that can take them out of poverty. However, the cost of acquiring education or skills is expensive. At Zummit Africa, we do not want that to deter anyone from acquiring skills to help themselves. To that effect, we are providing our training program free to all who want to up-skill in order to improve their means of living.

Here are some of the impressive traction we have recorded;

• Zummit has helped 2000+ gain tech skills.
• We have recorded about a 50% trainee employment rate.
• Over 30 AI projects, where extensive peer review and application of research papers by scientists and AI researchers have been carried out.

Conclusively, we want to empower young Africans through artificial intelligence and software engineering skills so that they can create a better future for themselves and their communities. This is who we are.
Join us today as we prepare the African workforce, training them to make a global impact on the world through AI and software engineering.

To learn more about our program;
Visit Zummit Africa Register now to join our cohort starting in January 2024.

Support us now in empowering more young Africans.

Jonathan Enudeme
Co-founder & CEO
Zummit Africa