The mentorship programme that covers foundational course in productive use of artificial intelligence & machine learning for own-career transformation, is being sponsored by Programos Software Group.

Programos Software Group, founders of the Innovationbed (Africa) Academy4AI Mentorship Delivery platform, is set to kick-start the process with the hosting of a free mentorship program for undergraduates from diverse tertiary institutions across Africa.

The event, scheduled for Saturday, October 5th, 2024, will introduce students to the Foundational Course in Productive Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML) for Career Transformation.

This program is designed to help undergraduates from various fields of study transform their career contents and paths by leveraging AI and ML advancements.

According to the Coordinator, Mr. Amos Emmanuel who doubles as a UN World Summit Awards Eminent National Expert for Nigeria, and the chief Software Architect/CEO, Programos Software Group, the event shall be held in collaboration with our country representatives from Zambia, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, and Nigeria, and will feature expert faculty members from the US, Pakistan, India, and other countries, offering unparalleled insight into AI’s potential for career development.

Why This Program Matters for African Undergraduates

Speaking further, Mr. Emmanuel said the focus of the mentorship programme is to empower African students, particularly those studying in traditionally saturated disciplines such as sociology, psychology, geography, and engineering, to unlock new and lucrative career opportunities by applying AI and ML capabilities.

“Through this foundational course, participants will be equipped to transform their various academic backgrounds into productive, revenue-generating ventures.

“AI and ML are no longer confined to tech-specific careers; they now present new opportunities across every discipline. By leveraging AI’s capabilities, students will learn how to redefine their career content to align with the rapidly evolving global job market. They will be able to reimagine the relevance of their academic studies, positioning themselves as innovators and problem-solvers who can contribute meaningfully to nation-building and economic transformation.

Sponsorship Opportunities and Collaboration

“The program is open to sponsorship from corporations, private individuals, and governments, providing an excellent opportunity to showcase Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on a continental and global stage. Sponsors will benefit from unique branding opportunities, including a personalized landing page showcasing their support and sponsorship detailing all the beneficiaries from any course of study, institution of higher learning, and any country of origin. This platform will also allow them to make a direct impact on the next generation of Africa’s innovators as we work with other national experts to showcase our local talents and innovations from Africa to the world stage:.

Meanwhile, Moses Oluwatowo Amos, general manager, Programos Software Group, said:

“Our upcoming mentorship program is aimed at transforming the career paths of African undergraduates by harnessing the power of AI and ML. With our collaborative efforts and the support of global faculty, we believe that every student, regardless of their field of study, can find success and empowerment in this digital age. The time to act is now, to ensure our young generation is not left behind in the global transformation.”

“Join us for this transformative mentorship experience and be part of the journey toward shaping Africa’s future workforce.

The giant initiative was recently launched in a gallant occasion opened by Architect Pierpaolo Saporito, president of the Observatory on Digital Communication, in Consultative Status with (OCCAM of UN ECOSOC).

“Architect Saporito has truly inspired Programos and set the tone for the discussions that followed the birthing of the Innovationbed AcademyAI Upskilling platform to offer the much e-welfare Strategy that youths across Africa need to sustain and survive the bleak chances of the future labor terrain” Mr EMSU.

Other contributions and support towards the project include Dr. Umaru Kwairanga, group chairman, Nigerian Exchange Group; Professor Amjad Umar, founder and CEO, NGE Solutions, Inc. Tatiana Caldas-Löttiger,  AI Ethics & Regulatory Compliance Consultant; Amb. Dr. Ayodeji Oyewole Oyedokun, founder / chairman, Board of Directors at The International University of Information Management; Dr. Chris Uwaje, a WSA eContent Creativity Winner and former president, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON); Adekunle Taiwo,   senior technologist, Computer Engineering Department, NILE UNIVERSITY of Nigeria; Larry Attipoe, founder, Larry Happy Life Foundation; Arslan Dawood, winner of Fintech Awards 2022 as Best Specialist Digital Marketing Agency – APAC; Jose Almeida, data consultant and advisor, and Jide Awe,  MD/CEO, Jidaw Systems.

Others are; Mr. Tola Ajagbe, immediate past chairman, Nigeria Computer Society, NCS Ogun State; Dr. Olufemi Adeluyi, co-Ordinator, National Talent Export Programme, Nigeria; Haruna Sani Sani , director general, Nasarawa State Information Technology and Digital Economy (NASITDEA); Habib Abubakar Gajam Ph.D, executive secretary, Zamfara Information Technology Development Agency (ZITDA); Bilyaminu Ibrahim Gusau, technical adviser to the Executive Secretary, Zamfara Information Technology Development Agency (ZITDA); Dr. Oluseyi Akindeinde , founder, Hyperspace & NeuRaL AI; Modou Lamin Ceesay, Software Engineer, Enterprise Life and country partner, Innovationbed Academy4AI, The Gambia Hub; Abdulai Kemoh Conteh, founder & CVO of IT Specialists Without Borders, WSA National Expert for Sierra Leone; Rev. Abednego Mambwe, CEO, New Africa Vision; Alexander Ojo, head of IT, The Royal Senchi Resort & Hotel, Ghana; Alagie Mamadi Kurang, founder, JollofTutors; Avre Russell, founder, Glappy Foundation; Cinderella Ochu (Mrs), president, Eureka Health Advocacy Network; Oluwatowo Moses Amos, Software Engineer, Cyprus International University; Bedeabasi John, researcher/deputy SOC Manager, Center of Excellence in Cybersecurity, Education and Outreach, North Carolina A&T State University Alumni Member, Innovationbed Academy4AI Ecosystem; Prof. Oluremi Olutimo, president/chancellor, Highstone International University; Abah Emmanuel; Innovationbed (WSANIGERIA) National Nominee founder, Waste2Light (Green Energy Startup); Femi Aderibigbe, group CIO, Greenwich Merchant Bank; Richard Amafuonye, Access Corporation; Ikande Samuel,  WSA National Nominee, Project Partner, Innovationbed Academy4AI; Siro Collins, head of House, Steering Committee Member, Innovationbed Academy4AI, and Mujahid Musa, founder/CEO, EGL Africa Faculty Member, Innovationbed Academy4AI.

The event also had Nigeria’s leading media practitioners in attendance. Some of whom are; Don Pedro, lead partner, TechTV Network; Peter Nwochei, MEGA 89.1 FM, Warri, Delta State, and Peter Oluka, Editor-in-Chief, Techeconomy.

Call to apply:

Any undergraduate from any course of study and any tertiary institution in an African country can register for FREE here.

For sponsorship opportunities to top up for the 1000 undergraduates target kinly contact: programos.amos@gmail.com.

Dr. Habib Abubakar Gajam, the executive secretary, of Zamfara Information Technology Development Agency (ZITDA), said that the Agency, which serves as a clearing house for ICT projects and programmes in the State, is open to partnering with technology ecosystem players to tackle socio-economic issues ravaging the State.

Gajam was speaking through Bilyaminu Ibrahim Gusau, his technical adviser, on Saturday, February 17, 2024, during the United Nations World Summit Award (UN-WSA) Nigeria Youth Ambassadors Conference 2024 and the launch of the InnovationbedAI Career Transformation and Mentorship Product & Services Portal under the theme: Driving Rural Nigeria by Sustainable (AI4Dev) Innovations.

The event which was aimed to showcase the WSA Youth Ambassadors network to the public, as well as launch new initiatives of Programos Foundation, was opened by the President of OCCAM, Architect Pierpaolo Saporito.

OCCAM is the Observatory on Digital Communication, affiliated to the UN ECOSOC since 2005. The President in his opening address invited the government and private sector from Nigeria to the 23rd Infopoverty World Conference, scheduled to take place on April 12, 2024, in a hybrid format at the UN Headquarters in New York.

It was also noted that the Programos Foundation facilitated the participation of the Federal Ministry of Communication, Innovation, and Digital Economy by the former Minister, Prof. Isa Pantami (FNCS) in the 2023 edition, and was ably represented by the Technical Adviser,  Dr Femi Adeluyi.

Dr. Vincent Olatunji, the National Commissioner/CEO, Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), represented by the head of Innovation at the NDPC, Chiderah Ike-Okonkwo showcased Nigeria’s safety landmarks within 2 years.

The NDPC expressed willingness to understand what we do at #InnovationbedAI #Labs and the World Summit Awards process of Innovation tech scouting and promotions.

Leading a delegation for the grand jury session on the WSA 2023 global competitions in India of the WSA Youths Ambassadors for Nigeria Conference.

Emmanuel Amos, Programos Foundation founder had volunteered as the United Nations World Summit Awards National Expert for Nigeria and Country Coordinator for SPACE4ICT – an SDG-Advisor, decision support service consultancy for developing countries and small Islands, initiative with UN World Summit Awards and UN ICT4SIDS respectively.

WSA (World Summit Awards) is a unique awards system, that selects and promotes local digital innovation to improve society.

Combining an ongoing series of international events and activities with a global network of start-ups, social entrepreneurs, mentors, jurors, speakers, experts, government leaders, academia, and civil society, WSA is an international platform for cutting-edge examples of how ICTs can impact society positively.

With 20 years of international experience, WSA is a quality seal for digital content with a societal impact in 182 participating countries.

In what has become an interesting journey for 15 years now, Amos Emmanuel has had to build and nurture a digital ecosystem InnovationbedAI as a vehicle to administer the work role in a manner that compliments the political leadership’s agenda for the good of society.

Amos says:

“#InnovationbedAI #Labs, pioneers a transformative ecosystem that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence and innovation to drive positive change in Nigeria.” he continues, “Our mission is to nurture diverse talent, catalyze small and medium enterprise creation, and provide cutting-edge AI consultancy services through young people in Africa. Through collaboration, education, and innovation, we aim to propel Nigeria and indeed Africa towards a prosperous and technologically advanced future.

To empower individuals and businesses in Nigeria through the strategic application of artificial intelligence and innovation. We foster diverse career transformation, facilitate the creation of sustainable small and medium enterprises, and establish a dynamic AI consultancy services marketplace. Our mission is to bridge the gap between potential and opportunity, igniting a wave of creativity and progress in the Nigerian landscape.”

And Zamfara happens to be one of the States where some of the youth ambassadors have emerged. In 2023, Fauzudeen Mahmoud from Zamfara state, the innovator for ZamTracka – a transparency and Open Government and Citizens Engagements project, won the prestigious WSA Awards and was celebrated among other winners at the congress in Puebla, Mexico City. Two other winners from Edo and Lagos state respectively: Labohack, Sqooks also represented Nigeria and the Winners Congress.

Speaking in that line, Gajam said ZITDA is working with the State Executive on technology development legislation that will focus on digital rescue missions with key pillars:

1. Literacy/skills education,
2. E-Government,
3. Human Capital Development

We are ready to partner with technology ecosystem players in these areas. We understand that technology evolves every second these days. The advent of machine learning, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, transition from Web2 to Web3, has given us hope and platforms to innovate. For instance, we want our girls to participate in ICT challenges and emerge as champions. We might be late, but we can do it. We need every support we can get.

“We believe UN WSA and Programos Foundation and the body of youth ambassadors network can be our partners to leapfrog our technology ecosystem and energize our youth/innovators in the area of security, e-learning, and health tech, amongst others”, the ZITDA boss said.

He added that security has been a major issue in the State for some time now hence the present government of Governor Dauda Lawal has taken steps to tackle it among other socio-economic challenges.

Earlier, Mr Amos said that the InnovationbedAI Labs: Career Transformation and Mentorship for Digital Product & Services Innovation Portal will emphasize innovations development capacity in key areas among youths in tertiary institutions across the country in rural farming, healthcare, security/safety, green energy, eCommerce, eLearning & education, smart-settlement, open government, inclusion & empowerment.

He shared a slogan for the #InnovationbedAI as ‘Giving power to the creative minds leveraging advancements in AI and ML’

He said that through the pre-conference, InnovationbedAI aimed to showcase its ICT Village Model for Nigerian Youths by identifying pilot villages to apply digital innovations to bridge the gaps.

Impressed by the speakers’ devotion to helping the African youth to innovate especially in Nigeria, Professor Amjad Umar, the lead Architect of the UN ICT4SIDS initiative, admitted to having worked with Programos Foundation boss on the UN ICT4SIDS (SPACE4ICT – Computer-Aided Planning for Digital Transformation Programme) in Working Group for more than 12 years, said, “What Programos is doing with its InnovationbedAI Initiative is important to us in the education and entrepreneurship space for the African regions.

“We are very interested in how digital transformation can be done and replicated in developing countries and small islands without failure. Therefore, Programos Foundation has done noble work and we are still interested in working with Amos’ InnovationbedAI Incubation programme to link startups to international partners and assist them to scale”.

Prof Amjad Umar presented on The ICT4SIDS Partnership, expressing the Platform for Rapid Digital Capacity Building of SIDS in developing countries.

The objective of the Global ICT4SIDS Center is to support smart hubs that provide inexpensive and highly specialized community services in health, education, public safety, public welfare, and decision support.

These hubs are designed to collaborate across communities for rapid regional transformation and thus lead to the rapid adoption of #SmartGlobalVillage as a Powerful capacity-building platform based on research, practice, and teaching that has produced eFactory for Building Smart Hubs: A Smart Global Village for implementation of SDGs, An Education and Advising Practice for SIDS, A Lab, and Sandbox for Experimentation.

Prof Amjad Umar who is also the Director of Graduate Programmes at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology in the US also spoke about the partnership with Programos Foundation’s #InnovationbedAI #Labs for the new Harrisburg University campus in Dubai, UAE. The benefits of learning in HU@Dubai are enormous: Easy Entry Visa, Hybrid (online, on-site), Scholarship for 50% of US tuition in Dubai, Possibility to work and study, and Transition Paths, through CITO.

APPLY HERE.

The immediate past Managing Director/CEO of Wemabank Plc, Mr Ademola Adebise shared his experiences with the youths. He was also a winner of the WSA National Nominee for Nigeria under the Business and Commerce category by Wemabank’s ALAT.ng digital banking revolution product.

David Atabo – The Coordinator, of Youth Ambassador Network, Africa remarked on the NDPC’s presentation recommending an up-to-date preparation to keep Nigeria’s privacy and protection concerns safe from emerging digital threats.

Jide Awe, the founder of Jidaw Systems, and a pioneer National Pre-Selection Committee Member (The WSANigeria Jury) appointed by the national Expert was happy to see consistency in the WSA process in Nigeria, applauding the WSA National Expert, Amos Emmanuel, for the pedigree consolidated for the Nigerian region in the global competition since 2009;

Isaac Udotong – a Global AI and Blockchain Consultant, Former Consultant at NASA, US, and Mentor, Fireflies Notetaker.

Peter Oluka, Editor of Techeconomy, was thrilled at the quality of the event content from start to finish as is always the case for any past Programos event. He also shares the partnership between Programos Foundation and Techconomy which fuses the WSANigeria programmes into their annual Tech events.

Arslan Dawood – is a digital marketing guru from Pakistan and shared plans to partner Programos on the Contents of the InnovationbedAI Labs Portal opening soon.

Other eminent dignitaries include:

Mr. Anayo Agu, Co-founder, Seeds of Greatness Institute, and former Senior Commercial Specialist, American Embassy, Lagos;

Olufemi Olapegba – MD SmartHealth, United Kingdom who incidentally was Programos Foundation incubated beneficiary also shared his exploits with the WSA Youth Ambassadors.

Justina Omenihu, a member of the youth ambassador network for Africa, described WSA Nigeria as vibrant and encouraged stakeholders in attendance to assist the ecosystem to outgrow its projections.

She also charged young innovators with volunteerism, stressing that “innovators need to focus on why they are innovating despite the present economic challenges.”

Adekunle Taiwo – a Senior Technologist, Computer Engineering Department, at NILE UNIVERSITY of Nigeria, Abuja, is another product of Programos Foundation’s past incubation programmes beneficiary and has spoken so well of the Programos Foundation innovation vineyard in Nigeria for decades.

The InnovationbedAI Labs – The main goal is to provide students with training in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Our program offers a combination of theoretical knowledge enabling participants from academic backgrounds to utilise AI effectively for greater efficiency. This empowers students to develop ground-breaking ‘services’ and ‘products’ while still in school.

The roll call of some of the dynamic WSA Youth Ambassadors for Nigeria:

On behalf of the WSA Youth Ambassador for Nigeria, Agbona Boluwatife from (Ondo State) – the Head of House #HoH of the WSA Nigeria (InnovationbedAI Incubation) House solicited government support for WSA programmes in Nigeria. The gallery of the Ambassadors listed as Oluwatowo Moses Amos, ED, Programos Foundation, Prince Nyong Inyang – The Depuy headOfHouse, #DHoH (Cross River), Idris Mubarak (Kogi), Abdullahi Abubakar (Zamfara), Ibrahim Albashir Ishaq (Borno), Bishio Joan Felix (Kaduna), Oyindamola Osinubi (Ogun) Ifeoluwa David Omosowoeni (Ondo), Hayatudeen Mustapha(Oyo), Henry Lamba Danwawo (Kaduna), Motunrayo Fatoke (Osun), Queenesther Michael Hogan (Cross River), Utenwo-ojo Abraham(Kogi), Williams Okina (Cross river), Michael Sunmoni (Lagos), Awokunle Olayinka Tope (Osun), Daniel Adeyemi daniel(Kwara), Johnson Samuel Olamilekan (Ogun), Tolani Olawore (Osun), Demi Val-Ugboma (Rivers), Israel Oyenigbehin (Ondo), Eruchie Esther Chinenye (Enugu), Amedu Martha Omoye (Anambra), Daniels Sheila (Oyo), and Uthman Alimot (Lagos).