22 Nigerian Children Bag International AI Certification

Esther Oluku

A total of 22 Nigerian children have bagged the Artificial Intelligence Master certification from Cihan Digital Academy. The certification which is accredited by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and affiliated with the university of Artificial Intelligence and Experiential Education, Missouri, United States of America, sets the children up to productively engage technology in solving real life problems.

According to the Chief AI Officer, Cihan Digital Academy, Dr. Celestine Achi, the certification came after weeks of immersive training which has shaped the children into AI prompt engineers, creators and innovators.

The training which was conducted in two categories with children aged eight to 12 and 13 to 18 respectively, ended in a graduation ceremony which doubled as a pitch session, producing three winners from each category.

Winner of the senior category and Founder, StudyGeex, Angel Achi, explained that her product was built from the need to simplify study for students by summarising voluminous study materials into short notes and flashcards to make study easier to comprehend.

“The name of my app is StudyGeex. I remember that I have subject I struggle with and I know I can do better with the right support. So, I thought that if I can create an app that can summarize my notes, I will understand everything and i will not miss any point and that is what why I built with StudyGeex.”

On her part, third place winner for the junior category and Founder, Localestay, Chizitaram Nlemadim, explained that through application of AI tools, Localestay hopes to bridge information gaps with regards to housing and accommodation.

“Localestay helps people find houses available for sale, rental homes and hotels for vacation anywhere around the world. All one has to do is put in the location and it generates home options.”

While all the children expressed optimism about scaling and monetising their solutions into profitable businesses, Mr. Achi explained that the academy will support the children over the next four weeks to get to a position where they can “deploy, launch and, of course, start earning money”.

Achi further called on the government to support programmes which empower children to be positive contributors to social good. “The government should take the kids seriously. Innovation starts with them and as far as AI is concerned, they are the kings.”

On her part, Co-founder Cihan Digital Academy, Thelma Okoh, enjoined the graduands to continue practicing what they have learnt so as to remain informed on new and emerging trends.

“One thing about AI, is that it keeps evolving. It keeps evolving. During the course of the training, we spoke about AI not only being about automation but also about augmentation. It’s collaboration.

“So my advice to the graduands is that they should keep building and evolving as the tools keep evolving.”