This strategic elevation underscores DSN’s commitment to delivering transformational, inclusive, and scalable AI-driven solutions rooted in Africa’s unique development context.

Chinazo’s appointment reflects not only her proven business and technical excellence but also DSN’s dedication to nurturing homegrown talent capable of leading Africa’s AI journey on the global stage.

An accomplished AI and geospatial executive, Chinazo brings more than thirteen years of postgraduate experience across multiple sectors, regions, and domains.

Her journey with DSN began in 2019 as a participant in the organization’s flagship AI Bootcamp, a remarkable progression that embodies DSN’s mission to develop and elevate indigenous talent.

She formally joined DSN in 2020 and has since distinguished herself through her operational depth, innovation, and ability to translate complex ideas into practical solutions with measurable impact.

In her most recent role as Geospatial Business Lead, Chinazo spearheaded the development of an AI-powered intelligent microplanning platform that is revolutionizing last-mile healthcare delivery through real-time geospatial insights.

She also led the Meta-funded Geospatial Data for Good Health Project, which spanned Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, and Nigeria, training over 500 young professionals and curating the first Geospatial Machine Learning Workshop at Deep Learning Indaba, Africa’s foremost AI conference.

Her innovation track record further includes the conception and development of SpotOn, a digital inclusion platform that empowers small and informal businesses through location-based discovery and digital storefronts.

Her leadership has earned global acclaim. In 2023, her team at DSN received the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Grand Challenge Award for work at the intersection of large language models and localized learning systems. In 2024, her geospatial team gained international recognition at NASA’s Pale Blue Dot Challenge for a pioneering visualization solution.

She has also contributed to global development systems, including being part of the team that lead the adaptation of the open-source DHIS2 platform into a scalable governance tool for emerging markets, earning commendation in Norway for its uniqueness and impact.

Currently, she is advancing a strategic partnership with the University of Southampton’s WorldPop Lab, driving AI-powered geospatial innovations for inclusive economic planning in low- and middle-income countries.

As Director, AI Solutions Delivery, Chinazo will oversee DSN’s strategic planning and execution of solution delivery, managing AI engineering, data science, geospatial analytics, and product solutioning teams.

She will also serve as a senior liaison with DSN’s partners, ensuring that every solution is contextually relevant, technically sound, and delivers measurable socio-economic impact.

Beyond operations, she will lead knowledge management, technical capacity building, and solution commercialization, reinforcing DSN’s role as a thought leader in responsible and inclusive AI.

Speaking on her appointment, Dr. Olubayo Adekanmbi, founder and CEO of Data Science Nigeria, noted that Chinazo’s elevation marks a new chapter for DSN as it continues to scale impactful AI solutions for Africa and beyond.

He highlighted that her journey, beginning as a participant at the AI Bootcamp and culminating in her new leadership role, demonstrates the power of nurturing indigenous talent to address Africa’s challenges with global excellence.

With this appointment, DSN reaffirms its readiness to deepen engagements with partners and to deliver high-quality, inclusive, and transformative AI solutions across multiple domains.

In fact, the pioneering African-centric AI start-up, officially unveiled its solutions today with a bold mission: to build AI solutions that solve real-world problems in emerging markets using hyperlocal multimodal datasets, created in collaboration with native language speakers, to build localized models for agentic AI innovations.

The company aims to make AI truly understand African contexts and speak its languages, ensuring AI innovations are accessible, inclusive, and impactful for the communities that need them most.

Founded by award-winning experts, Dr. Olubayo Adekanmbi and Dr. Ife Adebara, EqualyzAI is committed to ensuring African languages, cultures, and contexts are central to the global AI evolution.

Dr. Adekanmbi brings extensive experience as a C-level executive at MTN and Airtel Africa UK Limited, where he led innovations, analytics and strategy, serving over 250 million customers across over 20 countries on the continent.

He is also a Global Grand Challenge winner for his work on Large Language Models (LLMs) and has played a pivotal role in establishing Data Science Nigeria, Africa’s leading AI learning, research, and solution delivery network.

Dr. Adebara is a globally recognized AI researcher, specializing in Deep Learning, Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing (NLP), with a PhD from the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada.

She is a UNESCO IRCAI Top 10 Outstanding Global AI Solutions awardee for her work on AfroLID, Serengeti and Cheetah, groundbreaking models for language identification and natural language understanding across 517 African languages.

The unveiling event, held on Friday, February 21, 2025, in celebration of the International Mother Language Day, brought together journalists, industry leaders, and AI enthusiasts to showcase EqualyzAI’s groundbreaking innovations.

The event highlighted the organization’s commitment to promoting linguistic diversity, cultural heritage, and inclusive AI development. Through its unique approach of collaborating with native language speakers, the company is building agentic AI solutions capable of understanding, processing, and generating responses in many African languages.

Speaking at the launch event held at Data Science Nigeria hub, Yaba, Dr. Adekanmbi said:

“Our mission is to ensure that AI speaks our languages, understands our contexts in text, speeches, images and videos, and solves our unique challenges. This is not just about technology; it’s about empowerment and inclusion. At EqualyzAI, we are bridging this gap by creating AI solutions trained on African realities, ensuring that no one is left behind.”

Dr. Adebara further emphasized the importance of localized AI solutions, stating:

“Language is a gateway to knowledge, opportunity, and identity. By building AI that understands and speaks African languages, we are preserving our cultural heritage and creating tools that can transform lives. Africa is home to over 2,000 languages, yet most AI models struggle to understand even a fraction of them. Our goal is to change this by developing AI that speaks and understands Africa’s languages, unlocking new opportunities for education, business, and social impact.”

At the event, EqualyzAI demonstrated its cutting-edge AI solutions designed to address critical challenges in Africa while promoting linguistic diversity.

Key innovations include:

1. DataCollect: A platform designed to collect hyperlocal datasets needed to build AI solutions that speak many African languages, ensuring inclusivity and representation.
2. AfroSLM 1.0: A Small Language Model (SLM) optimized to improve financial literacy in Yoruba and Hausa, empowering users with accessible financial education in their native languages.
3. uLearn: An LLM-powered tool for teachers to generate lesson plans, notes, and quizzes in English and local languages, revolutionizing education delivery across Africa.

Additionally, EqualyzAI shared its recent white paper, titled “How Small Language Models (SLMs) Are Revolutionizing Localized AI Innovations for Social Good in Africa.”

The paper explores the transformative potential of SLMs in addressing Africa’s unique challenges and advancing AI accessibility.

EqualyzAI is not just building AI models—it is building a movement to democratize AI and make its possibilities accessible to all Africans.

By investing in hyperlocal AI innovations, the company aims to create solutions that empower communities, drive economic growth, and preserve Africa’s linguistic heritage.