Africa Tech Radio

With Coups, electoral reforms and elections, West Africa faces a big question, “Is Democracy failing in Africa?”

In this episode, Project Manager, Media in National Elections (MiNE); Amina Miango and Digital Investigations Manager at CJID; Silas Jonathan speaks to Tony about democracy, media integrity and elections in West Africa.

Are we facing the return of imperialism and colonialism?

What have you heard about the Epstein files?

Marco Rubio’s comments at the Munich security conference are inflammatory and in this episode, Ayisha asks if we should be cautious of a return of western imperialism. 

Also, Ekene unpacks the Epstein files and the many lessons we ought to learn from such a monstrous revelation.

Share your thoughts this week with Ekene and Ayisha. Leave us a comment, we’d love to hear what’s on your mind.

Resources - 
https://youtu.be/4OWBvze2yOM?si=tg_b8KbLxSBwmG5x
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cnv6rjp468ro

Guests Feature:
a) Chika Matthias Mordi - A prominent Nigerian economist, banker and public policy expert

b) Oghosa - Sometimes; a hard worker. Sometimes; a house husband and a soft boy. Every time; a staunch believer in embarrassing Nigerian politicians in public. 

Duration: ~49 minutes
Produced by: Africa Tech Radio
Listen on: Podbean | Spotify | Apple Podcasts |
Hosts: Ekene Ezeji and Ayisha Osori

"Working solo was my worst mistake … "

“Find a mentor, not just anyone, someone who’s killing it...”

In this episode of the Data and AI Gist Podcast, host, Philip Ade-Akanbi chats with Damilola Babalola; Senior Business Intelligence Analyst, Vinsighte.

Dami or Full-stack data analyst (as he's fondly called), shares insights into the daily life of an Analytics professional in a Health-tech startup in Nigeria.

Dami who has worked full time, part-time and as a freelancer across industries in the data analysis space shares insights into how to navigate working as a data analytics professional in different industries.

To Dami, getting a mentor is non-negotiable. Also, finding a community of like minded professionals is important to every analytics professional.

Join the Conversation: Follow @AfricaTechRadio and use #DataAndAIGist to share your thoughts.

Connect with Seyi on Social Media:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/babaloladamilola/

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Roles you never knew existed in Tech like SRE - John Ewuji

In this episode of the Data and AI Gist Podcast, host, Philip Ade-Akanbi chats with John Ewuji, a Senior Cloud Engineer at ALAT by Wema Bank.

John shares insights how to get started as a cloud engineer and how to scale your career in cloud engineering.

Currently, John is DevOps Engineer - @ALAT by @WemaBankOfficial and has spent the last half a decade doing the hard things in cloud engineering. He advices that all newbies into the data analytics industry and cloud engineering space get a mentor.

They also discuss how to actually seek out a mentor with practical tips offered by John. He shares how he also worked to maintain the relationship with his mentor to push him into the next phase of his career.

John brings to this conversation as a DevOps Engineer, over 5 years of experience in Information Technology, specializing in automating, supporting, and deploying critical applications across large-scale infrastructure. Highly proficient in Azure Cloud services, Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, and Bitbucket Pipelines. Experienced in building and managing cloud infrastructures using ARM template, Terraform, PowerShell, Bicep, and scripting languages such as Bash and Python for Infrastructure as Code (IaC).

He has also collaborated with software engineering teams to migrate on-premises services to the cloud, leading to a complete revamp of application architecture and a 70% reduction in deployment time.

Join the Conversation: Follow @AfricaTechRadio and use #DataAndAIGist to share your thoughts.

Connect with John on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ewuji-john-40bb1413b/

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In this episode of the Data and AI Gist Podcast, host, Philip Ade-Akanbi chats with Olamide Jolaoso, a Data Analytics & AI Manager.

Olamide shares how to start a data career, where to find data jobs and how to scale your data career.

Currently, Olamide leads a Data Analytics team at  @WemaBankOfficial  and has spent the last decade building a community of data analytics professionals. He mentors newbies into the data analytics industry and advocates for a more robust data and AI ecosystem in Africa.

They also discuss how to manage a data team, problem solving and the how to develop Africa’s growing data talent pipeline.

Join the Conversation: Follow @AfricaTechRadio and use #DataAndAIGist to share your thoughts.

Connect with Gift on LinkedIn and explore DataFestAfrica at datafestafrica.com

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Can Nigeria transmit election results in real time?

Can care workers have a better attitude?

Elections and Medical Negligence concern and connect everyone like a common denominator!

As Nigeria struggles to find its rhythm through another electoral reform process, Ayisha leads the discussion around the controversies surrounding the electoral reforms and why there’s an outburst towards Nigeria’s National Assembly.

Ekene unearths another cause of medical negligence; negative attitude and lack of empathy among care workers.

Share your thoughts this week with Ekene and Ayisha.

Leave us a comment, we’d love to hear what’s on your mind.

Resources:

• https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/commentisfree/2026/feb/06/death-singer-ifunanya-nwangene-snakebite-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-anthony-joshua-nigeria-healthcare-crisis

 

• https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUNby2ejOPG/?igsh=MXF3ZnAzanN3OXFyMQ==

 

• https://x.com/i/status/2021438096269603286

Developer will lose their jobs to AI...AI does not burn out, take leave or get sick,

In this episode of the Data and AI Gist Podcast, host, Philip Ade-Akanbi chats with Michael Okeje who describes himself as an AI Nomad.

Michael opens us up to the immense opportunities that lie with using AI to scale businesses, SMEs and big corporations.

He dares even individuals to practice using AI tools in their daily life and watch how it impacts their life and perspectives to life.

Michael does not shy away from the "stark reality" that AI will make some job titles and roles disappear but also agrees that many more job titles and roles will be created.

Join the Conversation: Follow @AfricaTechRadio and use #DataAndAIGist to share your thoughts.

From digital ID systems, to internet services, funding, financial inclusion and digital infrastructure, who really owns Africa's digital future?

In this episode, Tony questions the long term impact of foreign investments into Africa's ecosystem and the ownership/control question.

All the opportunities I have gotten till date...was through a referral - Femi Ogunbodede.

In this episode of the Data and AI Gist Podcast, host, Philip Ade-Akanbi chats with Femi Ogunbodede; the Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence Lead at Indicina.

A data scientist with over 5 years of experience, mostly in the fintech space, focusing on credit, he enjoys running (having run two marathons), listening to music, and drinking coffee.

His proudest moment in his career is taking a product idea from the product team and seeing it developed, sold to clients, and serving a lot of customers.

Femi shares insights into the following: Absence of an African ChatGPT, Lack of Research Culture, Access to Data at Scale, Dedicating Resources to AI Research, AI and Economic Inclusion, Balancing Global Practices with Nigerian Reality, Data Privacy, Fairness and Explainability, Significant AI Solutions in Africa, AI/ML Adoption in Nigeria, AI Governance.

One of the key points he highlights in this episode is how Neo-banks like FairMoney and Carbon took a data-driven approach, gathering data from the ground up for decisioning to give out loans to regular Nigerians.

He notes that AI can make things easier and faster for existing players (neo-banks and traditional banks) who have already gathered data and AI models can be fine-tuned for specific use cases.

For Femi, his biggest career mistake was thinking that "anything is possible" and falling into the trap of trying to do everything, not realizing that resources and time are limited.

The failure of a big, 6-month "moonshot" project taught him that he should have started very small with a proof of concept (PoC) to check if the idea could actually work, instead of going straight into a full development.

He advises people to identify people with similar interests, discuss projects, and keep in touch at a professional level. He also advises people to "pay it forward" and help others with referrals.

Join the Conversation:

Follow @AfricaTechRadio and use #DataAndAIGist to share your thoughts.

What responsibility do we all have whether as elites or ordinary citizens?

While Ekene leads the conversation on medical negligence, Ayisha is asking if there is an elite consensus in Nigeria?

Responsibility is wielded and demanded as well from the ordinary citizen to the powerful elites.

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