Ada Labs, AICE partner with Nvidia to develop AI skills in Africa

Ada Labs Africa and AI Center of Excellence (AICE), in collaboration with Nvidia, are launching a new initiative which aims to contribute to the digitalisation of the African continent through artificial intelligence (AI).

The CEO of Ada Labs Africa, John Kamara, said the relationship will strengthen the capability of data science and AI rollouts in Africa as the two organisations collectively work to build capacity to train AI engineers in Africa. The new initiative will also address the scarcity and cost of skilled AI engineers.

“Our journey in contributing to digitalise the African continent has taken another important leap because of this initiative. We have invested heavily in infrastructure and platforms that will enable digitalisation of some of the key sectors affecting African growth and understand the critical role of AI in achieving our mission efficiently. However, if we do not have enough qualified people to manage AI systems, our efforts will be futile.

“This collaboration will help develop solutions, methodologies and best practices that are mutually beneficial for our companies, clients and market as a whole,” said Kamara.

The AI center for excellence in Nairobi has already started training the first cohort of 40 AI engineers as part of this initiative and launched a CEO roundtable series to demystify AI for C-level executives across Africa. The first roundtable in the series was held in January, and another session took place at Nvidia’s GPU Technology Conference in April. More sessions are planned for the coming months.

The initiative also aims at strengthening the buildup of the next generation of socially impactful and commercially driven entrepreneurs who will change the world from Africa. Ada Labs Africa and AICE will contribute together to several open-source AI technologies that will help innovators design, develop, deploy and monitor predictive models more quickly and efficiently.

Nvidia’s head of Emerging Areas, Kate Kallot, said, “Bringing together our combined expertise and experience in the market will help provide relevant solutions and contribute to a robust AI industry in Africa. We are looking forward to addressing the opportunities and challenges with AI technologies to benefit people and society across the continent.”

The companies will collaborate to train over 4,000 AI engineers in five cities in Africa, starting with Nairobi, Kenya, over the next three years and will include fostering applied AI research dedicated to solving challenges relevant to local ecosystems.

The collaboration also aims to strengthen relations with key stakeholders, including policymakers in the technology, computing and innovation ecosystem, and to build a transformational tech space on the continent.