AI Media Group is delighted to announce Bayo Adekanmbi – Chief Transformation Officer at MTN Nigeria, and founder of Data Science Nigeria – as keynote speaker at AI Expo Africa 2020.

Now in its third year, AI Expo Africa is Africa’s largest B2B Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotic Process Automation (RPA), and Data Science-focused trade show and conference. This year’s edition will be held as a virtual event on 3-4 September.

Nick Bradshaw, CEO AI Media Group & co-Founder of AI Expo Africa stated, “It’s a great honour to welcome Dr Bayo Adekanmbi this year, he has been a driving force in the industry for many years and has a passion and vision to grow the African Data Science & AI Community from the ground up.”

“Learning and education for young people sit at the heart of his broader vision to inspire, train and educate one million Africans about the 4IR opportunity. Data Science Nigeria and AI Expo Africa share the same vision about fostering education, learning opportunities and career development for young people, he is arguably one of the top 10 thought leaders in Africa driving the agenda for inclusion and education for young people, and a global exemplar of community leadership we can all aspire to,” added Bradshaw.

Adekanmbi is a leading expert in Data Science, advanced analytics, business transformation, marketing and strategy, with 19 years of cognate industry experience from two of the continent’s largest economies – Nigeria and South Africa. His list of credentials includes:

• Top 1% among the over 11 000 data scientists competing on the Kaggle Titanic Machine Learning Survival Model

• Recipient of the MTN Yellow Star Award for the conceptualisation of a Customer Value / Risk Management framework which led to multi-billion Naira revenue growth

• Number 1 on the Data Science Dojo In-class Capstone project leader board

• Patent owner for Social Pricing Recommender algorithm for low income pre-paid telecommunication users using uncalled-called numbers modelling (US62400186)

• PhD research work on application of Data Science algorithm to understand the effect of customer social networks on consumption behaviour in luxury and telecoms industry

• Advisory board member, insight2impact (i2i) – a global resource centre that seeks to improve financial inclusion through the smarter use of data.

• Winner: MIPAD – Most Influential People of Africa Descent (Class of 2018)

• Chairman, Data and Advanced Analytics work stream of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG)

• Participant, Network of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence for Development (AI4D) in sub-Saharan Africa

• Published academic and part-time mentor

Adekanmbi believes that Nigeria’s population of 200 million, which has a median age of about 18 years, is a huge strategic advantage that can position the country as one of the top 10 AI knowledge centres in the world. He sees an opportunity to raise 1 million AI talents in 10 years with globally relevant skills that can drive increased employability, foreign exchange inflow, AI-enabled start-ups and enhancement of the general quality of life through solution-oriented AI applications in health, agriculture, financial inclusion, and smart cities.

Adekanmbi joins a speaker line-up that includes; Kay Firth-Butterfield, Head of AI & ML, World Economic Forum, Neil Sahota, United Nations AI Advisor & Chief Innovation Officer, University of California, and Fred Werner, Head of Strategic Engagement and AI 4 Good, International Telecommunication Union.