Data Science Nigeria (DSN), has launched Artificial Intelligent (AI) development book for primary and secondary schools in Nigeria. DSN’s objective is to develop communities of young minds with AI development capacity across Nigerian basic schools. The distribution of the AI development book to primary and secondary schools in Nigeria, free of charge, is one way to achieve the objective.

DSN has a ten-year road map aimed at building a community of AI experts from Nigerian primary and secondary schools. To meet this objective, the convener of DSN, Dr. Olubayo Adekanmbi, said the book will be distributed to schools nationwide with the hope that it will prepare Nigeria in the nearest future as the one of the top 10 AI destinations in the world.

In a country starved of AI knowledge, the book will serve as the foundation of the basic knowledge that young people need. It is designed to democratize AI through simplicity, a factor that will help young ones to comprehend the concepts of AI and yearn to develop what they are learning.

The book which will be unveiled at the annual Artificial Intelligence Summit that will be held on Tuesday 19th of November 2019, in Lagos, is the first of its kind targeting young students in Nigeria.

The event is scheduled to run alongside the Artificial Intelligence Demystified Masterclass for executives and the all-expense paid Artificial Intelligence bootcamp, expected to be tutored by 26 international experts. It is supported by Microsoft, Softcom, Lagos State Office of Innovation, Bluechip Technologies, Retina-AI U.S.A, Axa Mansard, Carbon, Terragon Group and MainOne.

Richly endowed with the basic and deeper information about AI, the book starts with generic introductions to the core concepts; machine learning, deep learning, reinforcement learning and then, using the Python programming language, introduces a step-by-step guide to programming.

Putting the Nigerian environment into consideration, the book is designed to develop the capacity of deep thinking in young ones: A concept that will position Nigeria to harness economic growth in the age of data mining.

The author of the book, Adekanbi said:

“My intention is to go beyond the traditional code-first approach and motivate readers by helping them to understand what the knowledge of coding can do particularly in AI as a way to build an application-focused mindset.

“By creating pervasive knowledge across the country, we will open opportunities for every Nigerian to build the skills of the future. I believe that Nigeria’s population of 200 million, with a median age of about 18 years, is a huge strategic advantage that will position Nigeria as one of the top 10 AI knowledge centers in the world, especially if we proactively re-tool and reskill our young ones with relevant skills that can drive increased employability, foreign exchange inflows, AI-enabled startups, and enhance the general quality of life through solution-oriented AI applications in health, agriculture, financial inclusion, smart cities, and more. This will greatly benefit the lives of Nigerians, starting with those who train as data scientists and artificial intelligence scientists,” he said.

Adekanmbi has accumulated experience of 20 years in hands-on data science; he is also a researcher and a business leader. These fields of play gave him the basis to develop the AI book to serve the need of Nigerian young minds.

He has led the DSN non-profit vision in its two years of operation to significant successes, initiating transformational engagements that have impacted students positively across the country. That includes the 1st Intercampus Machine Learning competition that involved over 10, 000 students from 95 universities and polytechnics, AI Masterclass for businesses in Nigeria, dedicated Artificial Intelligence Community Hub, Industry-oriented hackathons, AI summer schools for kids, AI+Clubs in secondary schools, development of Nigeria-centric Machine Learning/Deep learning curriculum etc.

Read: Where is Africa in the Age of AI? 

The spectator posture of Nigeria as the rest of the world advances in AI is worrisome. The governments have shown no or little interest in developing talents or skills linked to artificial intelligence. Therefore, Adekanmbi’s efforts in bridging the gap between Nigeria and the rest of the world when it comes to STEM bring hope to young minds whose knack for tech and science has been stymied by lack of development amenities.

There is hope that the introduction of this book to Nigerian schools will push the governments to action. The need to encourage technology among the youths cannot be over-emphasized, and as the world is moving away from oil to data-based economy, the importance cannot be ignored.

According to the World Economic Forum’s 2019-2020 Global Competitiveness Report, Israel is the number one country for entrepreneurship and embrace of disruptive ideas. It is also the first for macroeconomic stability, companies innovative growth, research and development expenditures and multi stakeholder collaboration.

Israel spends 4.3 percent of its GDP on R&D, the highest in the world. An average of 20 new R & D Centres are established every year by organizations in biotechnology, computing, electronics, defense and other various fields critical to human civilization with over 300 multinational corporations having their R&D Centers there. It is also first in the world for venture capital investments as a ratio to GDP.

As the Startup Nation, it breeds 600 net new startup companies every year. It’s Ecosystem is anchored on a tripod of Human Capital, Financing Infrastructure and Research Infrastructure which supports Research and Development that ultimately results in economic value.

The Israel Innovation Authority also known as Matimop is the state agency which promotes and supports Israel’s quest as an innovation nation. It helps in fostering skilled personnel across all Research Centers across the country, investment in research infrastructure, development of finance infrastructure, addresses the market failures in R&D and bridges finance death alleys.

The secret of Israel’s deep technological capabilities which breeds disruptive innovation in its society is rooted in the Israeli Defense Forces elite Talpiot Unit which exposes it’s officers to the best engineering education available in the world.  According to Eric Schmidt former Chairman and CEO of Google the Israeli tank commander who has fought in the Syrian wars is the best engineering executive in the world as they are operationally the best and are extremely detail oriented.

In the Israeli military, tactical innovation comes from the bottom up from individual tank commanders and their officers. Considering the fact that every Israeli undergoes some compulsory experience in its Israeli Defense Forces, technology talents in the Jewish nation are unbounded and unconstrained as the ideology of Chutzpah allows for thought provoking criticism aimed at challenging the existing status quo which is the secret of its victories against countries which threaten her national interest and security.

It’s immigration policy allows Jews from different countries of the world to settle in their ancestral homeland bringing their various skill sets which has led to its entrepreneurship success.

Israel established Yozma an initiative to fund innovators in conjunction with the private sector which supported a huge number of startups which recorded successful exits as unicorns and recently launched Our Crowd, a crowdfunding platform that has helped in deepening access to finance for its entrepreneurs.

Israeli Research Institutions were also the first in the world to commercialize academic research.  The Weizmann Institute of Technology established Yeda (knowledge) to commercialize its research which has fostered thousands of biotechnology products and companies amassing over $400million. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s technology transfer company Yissum earns over $1 billion annually from research and has registered over 5,500 patents and 1,600 inventions.

The Nigerian Ministry of Defense should collaborate with the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology and Communication and Digital Economy to engage retired officers of the three units that are engineering graduates to create startup companies.

A $1billion Defense Innovation Fund should be established by the Office of the National Security Adviser to promote Research and Development in the armed forces and fund cutting edge innovative solutions which will be deployed to solve the rising insecurity in the land and others which are important to national development that can be used by civilians will be supported by venture capital. The internet which has transformed human civilization and contributed over a trillion dollars to global economic output was a product of R&D from the United States Defense and Allied Research Products Agency that is at the heart of the USA’s technological dominance.

President Muhammadu Buhari should launch a National Innovation Fund which will be supported by the private sector and give tax credits to organizations that invest a minimum of $10 million annually to fund R & D and startups. This will help to deepen the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Nigeria to make her economy globally competitive in the comity of nations.

The president of the Republic of Benin, Patrice Talon, has announced that West African countries will be withdrawing their foreign reserve CFA franc, from France. Talon said in an interview with France24 that it is a unanimous decision by user-countries in the West African region to withdraw the fund.

“We unanimously agree on this, to end this model,” he said.

“The Central banks of African countries of WAMU (West African Monetary Union) will manage all these foreign currency reserves and will distribute them to the various central banks partners in the world,” he added.

Since 1945, the West and Central African Francophone countries have been tied to CFA Franc, which reserve is in France. The situation has technically tied the economies of the West African countries to France and by extension, the European Union (EU), which means, EU economic policies affect Francophone West African countries.

In January, Liugi Di Maio, an Italian deputy prime minister blamed France for contributing to the immigration crisis in Europe through its financial activities in Africa. He said France has been exploiting former West African colonies through CFA franc, currently being used by 14 countries in Western and Central Africa. According to ANSA, the Italian news agency, Maio said of the French president, Emmanuel Macron; “first he lectures us, then continues to finance public debt with the money with which he exploits Africa,” he said.

When the CFA franc was created in 1945, it was pegged to the French currency then, the French Franc (FF). The CFA franc continued to be used until recently when members of the Francophone region decided to create something that will represent freedom from colonialism. There are now two different versions of it: the CFA franc of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), which has eight member countries, and the one for Central African Monetary and Economic Community, which has six members.

However, both versions of CFA are still pegged to the Euro and tied to the French economy. France holds 50 percent of the foreign exchange reserves of the countries using CFA, 14 of them in all. Recently, there has been a loud call for the CFA franc countries to assert their total independence from what has been described as neocolonialism that has left countries without control of their own currency.

In August 2017, a protest erupted in Dakar, the Senegalese capital over the continuous use of the CFA by African countries. Led by Kemi Seba, the infamous activist who burnt a 5,000 CFA note in defiance, it was a wakeup call to all francophone countries that still use the currency to create their own and demonstrate their total freedom from colonialism.

Pro-democracy youth movements in West Africa such as Y’en a Mare in Senegal and le Balai Citiyen in Burkina Faso have recently made the scraping of CFA their focal point. They say it’s time to end the obvious influence that France is still exercising on Africa.

These movements and protests have the complement of Liberate Africa from Monetary Slavery: Who Profits from the CFA Franc? A book published in 2016, by a group of African and European economists. The book criticizes the CFA as a means of post-colonial exploitation by France. Though France has always maintained that the participation of member countries has been out of their willingness, and the CFA reserve initiative has been to help stabilize the currency of her former colonies, using Guinea as an example, economists disagree. Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria all broke away from the CFA to issue their own currencies, which when compared to countries in CFA are significantly stable.

The argument has been that the CFA is a good currency for those who benefit from it. Talk of the major French and overseas corporations, the executives of the zone’s central banks, the elites wishing to repatriate wealth, heads of states who are not ready to step on the toes of the colonial masters yet.

France has evidently been the highest beneficiary of the CFA, a fact clear by their attitude toward African leaders who oppose the arrangement and those who support it. African leaders who support the CFA franc have enjoyed quid pro quo from France, in the form of a total support for them no matter what they do, while those who showed signs of dissent were fiercely opposed by the French government.

France holds a de facto veto on the boards of the two central banks within the CFA franc zone. Since 2010, when the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), was reformed, the conduct of monetary policy has been assigned to monetary policy committee. The French representative is a voting member of the committee, while the president of WAEMU commission attends only in an advisory capacity. Moreover, the European Central Bank also dictates the monetary and exchange rate policies CFA franc zones.

The French authorities have kept mum on the recent events regarding CFA franc, and so did African leaders until Talon broke the silence. But during his presidential campaign, Emmanuel Macron was quoted to have said that moving away from the CFA is the decision of African countries.

Since 2015, the 74-year old French legacy has seen increased dissent from around the world. In 2017, Kemi Seba’s protest against the CFA, through his NGO, SOS Pan-Africa (Urgences Panafricanistes) garnered momentum across Africa, Europe and in Haiti. Pan-Africanist, economists and activists all came together to urge the countries in the CFA zone to break away.

The resuscitation of the call to break away from CFA, and move the African funds to other destinations in Europe, is however, highlighting the incredible fact that Africa still lacks the capacity to function independently. One of the economic challenges the continent has faced is a single currency to facilitate easy exchange and intra-African trade.

The proposed currency (Eco) that could have served as an alternative to CFA was due to go into use in 2015, but has been deferred until 2020. So there is no alternative currency for the 14 countries currently on CFA.

Although, Talon didn’t give a timeframe for withdrawal of the fund, 2020 is just around the corner with its uncertainties. If Ecowas fails once again to facilitate the circulation of Eco, the quest to withdraw from CFA will likely mean moving from the influence of one European country to the other.