Nearly 3,000 aspiring data professionals from across Africa applied to the 2024/-25 AICA × DataCamp scholarship programme, with full scholarships worth $399 annually given to 500 underrepresented African talents. In a virtual recognition gala on 14 June 2025, AI Community Africa honoured stand-out graduates, unveiled fresh career-building initiatives, and opened applications for the 2025/-26 cohort.
On June 14th, 2025, we celebrated a powerful milestone in Africa’s data and AI education journey—the completion of the 2024/2025 DataCamp x AI Community Africa (AICA) Scholarship Program. With nearly 3,000 applicants from across the continent and dozens of learners completing capstone projects in their chosen data career tracks, this graduation was not just a culmination but a launchpad.
It was more than a ceremony. It was an affirmation of talent, resilience, and a shared commitment to shaping Africa’s role in the global data economy.
🎥 Watch the full graduation event on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-U_8deGpRY
Program Impact: Education, Community, Opportunity
Since its inception, AI Community Africa’s partnership with DataCamp Donates has focused on three pillars: Education, Community, and Opportunity.
- Nearly 3,000 learners from across Africa applied for the 2024/2025 cohort, a 300% increase from previous years. We made 500 full DataCamp licences (worth $399) available to qualified participants.
- Participants undertook comprehensive tracks in data science, machine learning, Python, SQL, and Excel.
- Over 70% completed at least one career track, showcasing commendable consistency and dedication.
- Capstone projects brought learning to life—pushing students to build end-to-end solutions that solve real-world problems.
“Our vision is simple: unlock Africa’s immense data talent and connect graduates to the opportunities that will transform industries and lives,” said Stephen F. Oladele, AICA founder and Executive Director.
Celebrating Top Talent Across Africa’s Data Career Tracks
This year’s ceremony showcased more than certificates—it told stories of resilience, transformation, and career breakthroughs.
Top Graduates Recognised:
We honoured the top learners from each track based on their capstone submissions:
- 🥇 Solomon Williams – Data Analysis with Python (89%)
- 🥇 Usman Daudu – Data Science (88%)
- 🥇 Eleshomi Benjamin – Machine Learning (79%)
- 🥇 Adeniyi Usman – Data Analysis with Excel
- 🥇 Pipeloluwa Agbola – Data Analysis with SQL (72%)
Their dedication across breakout rooms, weekly reviews, and capstone projects impressed both teaching assistants and mentors—proving that self-driven learning can unlock global career opportunities.
“This cohort proves Africa’s AI story is talent-first. Give brilliant minds access to world-class learning, and they will unlock impossible opportunities.”
— Stephen F. Oladele, Founder & Executive Director, AI Community Africa.
Insightful Career Conversations with Industry Leaders
Beyond celebration, the event was an education in itself. Industry experts from across the world joined to share their journeys and actionable advice with graduates.
Highlights:
- Brain Aboze, AICA’s partner coordinator and AI/ML developer evangelist at Safe Intelligence, spoke about the rising demand for developer evangelists who can bridge community and code. He emphasized communication, open-source contributions, and a global mindset as success levers.
- Emmanuel Okorie, Data Engineer, unpacked his journey from analytics to engineering, detailing how scalable pipelines and cloud platforms like AWS form the backbone of real-world data operations.
- Jennifer Ebe, bestselling LinkedIn Learning instructor and data engineer, advocated for projects driven by passion and problem-solving rather than generic templates. Her advice: “Your portfolio should reflect how you think, not just what you’ve learned.”
- Abimbola Olawali, ML Engineer at Sainsbury’s (UK), highlighted the need for production-level skills, such as Docker, deployment pipelines, and cloud orchestration—urging learners to transition from “model builders” to “solution deployers.”
Their stories showed learners it’s not just about completing a course—it’s about building visibility, solving real problems, and preparing for a hybrid workforce. These sessions are publicly available on our YouTube channel.
What’s Next? Opportunities Beyond the Education
At AI Community Africa, this ceremony wasn’t a finale—it was a launchpad. We unveiled several next steps for our graduates and broader community:
- 2025/2026 DataCamp Scholarship Applications are now open (deadline: June 28).
Apply via: https://bit.ly/AICAxDC2526 - Abihacks Hackathon sponsored by Google New York happens this July. Graduates will work on real-world African challenges with global mentorship.
- Structured Mentorship Tracks by career path (DevRel, Data Engineering, ML) are in development.
- Talent Network is launching soon to connect graduates with paid internships, apprenticeships, and remote jobs across Africa and globally.
We’ve structured our impact into three core pillars:
Education. Opportunities. Network.
We believe that’s the foundation for growing a continent-ready AI talent force—and we’re building it together. Building an African Talent Ecosystem for the Future of AI
This initiative is a core part of our mission at AI Community Africa—to democratize access to data and AI skills, and equip African learners with tools to build, collaborate, and thrive in a global economy.
By focusing on Education, Opportunities, and Network, we’re ensuring every learner moves beyond courses into real-world application, visibility, and impact.
Brain, the partnership coordinator, said, ‘Watching Solomon, Usman, Eleshomi, Adeniyi, Pipeloluwa, and hundreds of other graduates bring real-world solutions to life reminded me why community and code must go hand in hand. By fostering open-source contributions, peer-to-peer mentorship, and hands-on learning, we’re not just teaching skills but we’re igniting careers.’
If you’re a founder, ecosystem enabler, or hiring manager looking for Africa’s top data talent, —our graduates are ready.
We’re calling on:
- Employers to explore our graduate showcase and offer internships or project-based work.
- Mentors to join our 2025 mentorship program across AI, ML, Data Engineering, and DevRel.
- Partners to co-create innovation challenges and fund our next impact phase.
To join the network or become a mentor or partner: hello@aicommunityafrica.org
“The next wave of data-fluent Africans will not only fill vacancies—they will found companies, fix public services, and feed frontier research.” — Stephen F. Oladele, Founder & Executive Director, AI Community Africa.
Stephen F. Oladele also said AI Community Africa’s Education arm has quickly launched another cohort for over 3,000 African talents to ensure the impact through data and AI education continues.
“We launched another cohort in June, and this time, we are working really hard on providing learning licenses for about 2,500 African learners to become the data and AI talents the world desperately needs.
As of July 2,500, we have allocated 1,336 full-year licenses to underrepresented Africans who indicated interest in becoming AI talents. About 900 of them have started learning across the continent to build impactful projects for their local community and are taking professional certifications through DataCamp.
We are also launching the mentorship program for these learners to interact with African talents in the industry to get real-world insights. In October, we will launch in-person study groups across a few major cities in Africa so that learners can meet in person, learn together, work on impactful projects without infrastructural interruptions (like power, internet, etc.), and ultimately grow a network of builders.
We are excited to keep the momentum going in this cohort and continue to scale the opportunity in the next few years. We thank DataCamp for their continued trust and partnership with us. said Stephen F. Oladele, AICA founder and Executive Director, in his closing remarks.”
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