Jonathan Enudeme: Zummit Is on Mission to Democratise AI Education, Access for Africans

Enudeme is the founder and CEO of Zummit Africa with a mission of democratising AI education and access in Africa. He is a member of the International Law Association Nigerian branch, where he serves as a board member on the committee for AI and new technologies. He has demonstrated success in leading teams, driving product development, and implementing effective growth strategies. Passionate about leveraging Al for social impact, Through his work at Zummit Africa, Jonathan has been actively involved in promoting Al literacy and fostering a culture of ethical Al development training over 3,000. He has organised workshops, seminars, and training programs that educate individuals. He is also building Datarango.com, a platform designed to make learning AI and Data skills fun and rewarding. In this interview, he talks about AI and its democratisation in Africa. Excerpts:

Could you briefly share your entrepreneurship journey and career?

I was in my penultimate year in the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, while working remotely as a data science intern in a startup in India. Artificial Intelligence was quite a new thing then, many of my community members wanted the same job opportunity I had. So, I spoke with my boss, he agreed to bring them on board as long as I was able to lead the team of 10 junior data scientists. The job boosted my confidence so much as well as my that of my team. So, I spoke with my boss about starting up a company  like his in Nigeria. I wanted more people to have the opportunity like I did, I wanted to build an AI startup in Nigeria which was so scarce in 2021.

Prior to this, I had thought about different startup ideas like ‘Diabetes detection from retina scans’, ‘Crop classification for pasture plants’, etc. I chose to focus on AI education because the technology was nascent. For it to spread, people actually need to know and learn about it, so my mission was to democratise AI in Africa. In 2021, the AI narrative was not like this, I needed to explain what it meant to virtually everyone who heard the word.

What problem is Zummit Africa solving and how is it different from others?

Like I mentioned earlier, a lot of young enthusiastic people like me learning the technology needed somewhere to work and hone their skills. Unfortunately, majority of the companies in Nigeria were hiring data analyst not scientist or AI engineers. Your chances at a remote role with foreign companies were very slim as many of these companies wanted to recruit talents with some level of experience working in an AI company. We started solving the talent problem, with our business model, we are able to train AI talents through courses and internship, many of whom now work in global companies like Turing, AB InBev, Hugo, Gomycode, Heroshe, etc. We are not offering just another course; we are giving you an opportunity to learn and work.

Can you walk us through your training programmes and curriculum?

Our focus is first to help our learners understand Python programming language. According to Eric Schmidt the ex-CEO of Google, learning Python in this age of AI is the best foundation for any young person. Once our learners have understood Python foundation, then we introduce them to data science and AI. During the internship, our trainees get to explore deeper concepts of AI. This is totally project based; interns work as teams to solve the problem. These projects are deployed live for testing purposes. The team writes a comprehensive blog article about the project. Some of our alumni have gotten jobs or job offers as a result of these projects.

How do you ensure that your training programmes are accessible and inclusive for all Africans?

Well as our name Zummit Africa denotes, we ensure we are inclusive of all Africans. To our greatest delight, we have our footprint in over 9 African countries. We use tools like LinkedIn to reach talents across Africa.

Can you share some metrics or statistics demonstrating the impact of your company?

Yes, of course. From our last poll on our alumni, over 56 per cent of those who have been with us now have jobs globally. We have trained over 3000 people through our courses and internship programme. Our learners have developed and completed over 40 different AI projects. In our free training campaign in 2023, we received 1000 applicants from 9 African counties. Our current product Datarango has about 1,500 users, although we are still in beta.

What are some of the biggest challenges facing African youth in acquiring AI and software skill?

I must first commend the African youths, many of us are resilient hard workers hungry for success. When I brought in my 10 people from Nigeria to join my former company in India, they could literally feel the energy from us remotely. To the challenge, many  are eager to learn but lack the necessary tools and infrastructure. I’ll give a sad example. We wanted to train the youths in Ibeju Lekki some data skills, however, we were dismayed to discover that the area didn’t have power supply. The youths in the area cannot afford a laptop, and if they did, they have to get their own power supply.

How do you think AI and software skills can drive economic growth and development in Africa?

Simple answer, it has helped provide jobs for our youths, myself inclusive. Many startups have emanated from the development of these skills. Moniepoint presently employs over 1000 people. According to the NBS, the ICT industry is one of the top contributors to the GDP of Nigeria.

Lastly, what advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to make a difference in Africa’s tech ecosystem?

Building a company is a long game, requires grit, resilience, enough patience, mental stamina, accepting rejections and disappointments. People will give you a glimmer of hope and suddenly disappear on you, but don’t give up. It means you have something. You should be solving a problem. You should be very open-minded and humble. You should always be kind and build meaningful relationships. Getting rich quick should not be your motive. I have been learning these and still learning these important lessons.