Four Nigerian students have been announced as winners of the Doing Good Work in Africa (DOWA) 2024 AI Policy Challenge, a groundbreaking initiative aimed at engaging Nigerian youth in shaping national AI policy.
The top three winners, who were selected for their standout analysis, originality, and practicality of recommendations, are Adejuwon Adegite and Adebakin Haroun – who both emerged 1st place winner; Andrew Ayobami (2nd place), and Chibundom Ndukwu (3rd place).
The winners shared cash prizes totaling N1.6 million- N800,000 to 1st place, N500,000 (2nd place) and N300,000 (3rd place).
The duo of Adegite and Haroun won for their policy brief titled ‘AI Governance in Nigeria’s Healthcare Sector: Building a Framework for Responsible Innovation.’
While Ayobami’s policy brief was titled ‘Enhancing Efficiency and Inclusivity in the Nigerian Healthcare Sector: What can AI Do? and Ndukwu’s brief was titled ‘AI Regulation in the Field of Intellectual Property Protection.’
Participants submitted a four-page policy brief (plus a one-page executive summary) focused on AI governance in Healthcare, Intellectual Property, or Education; and also work individually or in teams of two to provide innovative solutions to Nigeria’s AI challenges.
“To maintain transparency, all submissions were blind-judged using anonymized identification tags. Each judge scored independently, ensuring impartiality and accuracy,” DOWA Co-Founder, Ola Erogbogbo-Oyeniyi, noted in a statement made available to Africa Interviews.
A global panel of six AI experts were judges of the Study Challenge which was launched on September 23 and closed on October 19, 2024.
Founded in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, DOWA is a free internship placement programme for self-motivated, forward-thinking students who seek internships that provide diverse, experiential learning opportunities in high-impact, innovative sectors in Africa.
The inaugural DOWA Masterclass, which held in Lagos in July, gathered over 100 young Nigerians who applied their talents to address critical AI policy concerns, focusing on education, healthcare, and intellectual property.
