Developing African Talents for the AI Era: A New Paradigm
For nearly a decade, I have sought the right opportunity to contribute to developing a vibrant AI ecosystem in Africa. So, after Snowflake successfully acquired TruEra last year, I felt the time had come for me to reconnect with the Continent and share my knowledge and experience with ambitious African tech entrepreneurs.
My path intersected with Arun Shanmuganathan, co-founder of Hence Technologies, whose profile naturally complemented mine. We both studied AI at Oxford University, have significant startup experience, and have a great network of limited partners. Our distinct strengths — my business acumen and his technical expertise — created a powerful synergy. Also, Arun’s five-year presence in Kigali, building relationships across East Africa, nicely matched my extensive tech diaspora connections.
While Arun was still working at Hence Technologies, I quickly started working on our investment thesis, establishing the guiding principles behind our AI-focused VC fund in Africa. I investigated what sectors will likely be most impacted, what countries I should initially focus on, and where AI talents are currently concentrated.
Math Olympiad: An Effective Method to Produce Exceptional AI Talents
Through this process, I encountered many of the well-documented challenges currently preventing Africa from becoming a major AI player, including a lack of infrastructure (e.g., data centers) and funding, poor data quality — particularly in local languages, a shortage of AI talents, limited internet access, and regulatory hurdles. However, one of them seems more critical and within our reach: the AI talent shortage.
Indeed, Arun is also the co-founder of the Rwanda Mathematics Olympiad, a program that fosters mathematical excellence by identifying and nurturing talent among students nationwide. His graduates have enrolled in and been awarded scholarships at prestigious universities worldwide.
I do know that math olympiad-based pedagogy produces exceptional AI talents as illustrated by the achievements of Mira Murati (ex-CTO of Open AI), Alexandr Wang (CEO of Scale AI), and Aravind Srinivas (CEO of Perplexity AI); who are all math olympiad Alumni. If we can identify and train many math olympiad talents and equip them with the right resources and network, they could succeed remarkably as startup founders.
Beyond Venture Capital: A More Systemic Approach
However, they would still have to overcome the other challenges listed above, which can not be meaningfully addressed through venture capital alone. Considering AI’s systemic impact on society — arguably the most significant transformative economic force since the Industrial Revolution — only a coordinated pan-African effort involving governments, academia, and the private sector could produce the nurturing ecosystem needed for AI to thrive on the Continent.
Further, after countless hours of discussion, brainstorming, and design thinking, our initial focus on supporting African AI founders evolved into a broader question of talent development in the AI age.
This shift revealed three interconnected challenges:
- How to support African AI founders?
- How to develop African AI talents?
- How to prepare African youth for an AI-driven future?
These are all important questions, but the last is the most fundamental. It is the key to addressing the other two.
The success of AI ventures depends on an ecosystem of enablers: access to high-quality data, sensible data policies passed by policymakers with high-level AI literacy, business leaders who understand the benefits of AI in their industries, strategic infrastructure investment, and tech-savvy users. In short, it requires a general upskiling of society for the Age of AI.
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: The Essential Skills
There is a passionate and fruitful debate about what skills are needed for the age of AI. At one extreme, some argue that we all need to turn into data scientists and rush to take programming classes; at the other end, others argue that none of this is needed now that we can interact with AI-powered systems in natural language. I do not want to settle this debate here or discuss the rationality of each side. My intent is more modest: I argue that as AI reshapes industries and all aspects of society, critical thinking and problem-solving have never been more important.
As a global AI governance expert who has spent close to a decade working on making AI systems more trustworthy through a mix of appropriate policies, processes, and tools, I deeply know that despite their remarkable progress, current AI systems harbor significant limitations and biases. This is a well-documented phenomenon. In this context, human judgment is still essential to decide why, when, and how to use AI to support human flourishing while mitigating potential risks.
After working with Arun for close to a year and engaging with dozens of Math Olympiad alumni, I have come to believe that Math Olympiad, particularly when combined with humanities education — philosophy, literature, history, economics, and geography — offers a proven framework for developing these essential skills.
The African Olympiad Academy: A Concrete Solution
You do not need to take my word for it. In September 2025, the African Olympiad Academy — a world-class residential high school in Rwanda, training the top Math and Science talent on the Continent — will open its doors.
Each year, we will select 30 exceptional students (15 boys, 15 girls) aged 14–16 through rigorous national math competitions and training camps held across Africa. These students will receive full scholarships to attend our three-year residential school, where they will study a comprehensive high school curriculum emphasising Olympiad-level math and science.
Our vision extends beyond producing Fields Medalists or successful AI entrepreneurs, although we will still do that. We aim to nurture diverse cohorts of leaders — mathematicians, scientists, policymakers, educators, and civil society advocates — united in their commitment to Africa’s advancement in the Age of AI.
The future of Africa stands at a crossroads, and time will reveal the impact of our endeavor. Now, you face a choice: wait two decades to witness our success or join this transformative journey today.
