Nigerian AI specialist, researcher, engineer, educator, and community organizer, Tejumade Afonja, has been ranked amongst the top AI achievers advancing the future of artificial intelligence across Africa.
The announcement, released during the week by the Society for AI Advancement and published on the organisation’s LinkedIn page, listed Afonja as one of the continent’s most influential under-40 leaders shaping the AI ecosystem through research, talent development, and community-driven innovation.
Her inclusion highlights her rising prominence in an increasingly competitive field and affirms the impact of her work in promoting AI accessibility, fairness, and representation for African communities.
A Continental Champion Among Africa’s AI Leaders
Afonja was ranked 17th in the prestigious Tier 3: Continental Champions category, which recognizes AI contributors whose leadership and technical accomplishments are driving large-scale adoption and transformation across the continent.
The category features leading innovators such as Jade Abbott (South Africa) ranked 15th, Alex Tsado (Nigeria) ranked 16th, Henry Mascot (Nigeria) in 18th place, Mouhamadou Kebe (Senegal) ranked 19th,
Others included are Kidist Tesfaye (Ethiopia) ranked 20th, Adora Nwodo (Nigeria) at the 21st position, Diana Nyakundi (Kenya) in 22nd place, Apiwe Hotele (South Africa) ranked 23rd, and Rebecca Ryakitimbo (Tanzania) ranked 24th.
Together, these individuals represent a cohort actively shaping Africa’s role in the fast-evolving global AI landscape.
The Rankings: Global Icons, Pioneers, Champions, Contributors, and Rising Stars
The Society for AI Advancement’s Top 40 list is divided into five tiers, reflecting varying levels of global influence, research leadership, innovation, and societal impact.
At the summit of the rankings is Tier 1: Global Icons, featuring highly distinguished figures such as Dr. Joy Buolamwini (Ghana), Kate Kallot (Central African Republic), Chinasa T. Okolo, Ph.D. (Nigeria), Silas Adekunle (Nigeria), and Pelonomi Moiloa (South Africa), among others.
These are personalities whose work shapes global AI policy, governance, and research at the highest levels.
In Tier 2: International Pioneers, innovators like Rachel Adams (South Africa), Darlington Akogo (Ghana), Charlette N’Guessan (Ivory Coast), and Neema Mduma, PhD (Tanzania) were acknowledged for bridging continents and receiving worldwide recognition for their groundbreaking AI contributions.
Beyond Afonja’s tier, the list also celebrates Tier 4: Solid Contributors, which includes experienced practitioners such as Aisha Walcott-Bryant, PhD (Ghana) and Ayodele Odubela (Nigeria).
Tier 5: Rising Stars, spotlighting emerging leaders such as Mercy Nyamewaa Asiedu, PhD (Ghana), Maryleen Amaizu, PhD (Nigeria), and Deborah Dormah Kanubala (Ghana).
Collectively, the rankings reflect a continent rich with talent, innovation, and global ambition, an ecosystem increasingly recognized on the world stage.
About the Society for AI Advancement
The Society for AI Advancement is a pan-African body devoted to empowering AI practitioners, promoting responsible AI governance, and accelerating innovation across the continent.
Through research, policy advocacy, community development, and strategic programs, the organisation works to ensure that African voices and expertise are represented in global AI discourse.
Its annual Top 40 AI Achievers ranking evaluates nominees based on their policy influence, technological breakthroughs, scale of impact, research contributions, leadership roles, and recognition across international platforms.
By placing Tejumade Afonja among its top-ranked achievers, the society reaffirms the significance of her work in shaping an inclusive and culturally relevant AI future for Africa.
Who is Tejumade Afonja?
Tejumade Afonja stands at the intersection of technical excellence, grassroots innovation, and educational advocacy.
She co-founded AI Saturdays Lagos (AI6 Lagos), one of Africa’s most influential community-driven AI education movements, created to democratize access to high-quality machine learning and data science training.
The free programme, which runs in structured cohorts over 16 consecutive Saturdays, has trained thousands of learners and played a pivotal role in preparing Africans for careers in AI engineering, research, computer vision, natural language processing, and deep learning.
Afonja’s initiatives help beginners transition into technical roles, prepare researchers for international opportunities, and expand the pipeline of African AI specialists.
This is guided by her belief that “there is a lot of African talent … we need to build this talent ourselves.”
Her commitment to accessible education addresses the continent’s shortage of affordable, structured AI learning pathways.
Beyond education, Afonja is a leading voice in developing African-relevant AI datasets.
She has contributed to culturally significant datasets such as ChowNet, a computer vision dataset built around African cuisines; African-accent speech corpora; and annotated voice datasets aimed at improving the accuracy of global AI systems for African accents.
Her work in this space is critical in combating the persistent bias faced by Africans in mainstream AI tools, ensuring that voice assistants, vision systems, and language models are inclusive and representative.
On the research front, the under-40 AI professional collaborates with global labs, publishes in respected venues, and contributes to major international workshops such as Machine Learning for the Developing World (ML4D) at NeurIPS and Mechanism Design for Social Good (MD4SG).
Through these platforms, she elevates African perspectives in global AI ethics, fairness, and policy debates.
Her combined efforts, spanning research, community organising, dataset development, mentorship, and advocacy, position her as one of the continent’s most influential AI builders.
Why It Matters: AI and Africa’s Technological Future
Tejumade Afonja’s recognition underscores the increasing significance of Africa in the global AI ecosystem.
As the continent moves toward a digitally driven future, leaders like her are ensuring that Africans are not only consumers of technology but also creators of cutting-edge solutions shaped by local context, culture, and lived realities.
Her contributions demonstrate the transformative potential of inclusive AI, one that empowers communities, develops talent, and ensures representation in global innovation.
In a period where AI is redefining economies, industries, and societies, Afonja’s work embodies the vision of an Africa that builds, leads, and competes on the world stage.
Her ranking among the Top 40 AI Achievers serves not only as recognition of individual excellence but also as a testament to the collective rise of African innovators reshaping the continent’s technological destiny.
Talking Points
Tejumade Afonja’s recognition among Africa’s Top 40 AI Achievers is both impressive and deserved, yet it also highlights the broader challenges and opportunities within Africa’s rapidly evolving AI ecosystem.
While her work in democratizing AI education and advocating for culturally relevant datasets positions her as one of the most impactful voices pushing for inclusivity and fairness.
The scale of her influence also underscores how much of Africa’s AI progress still relies on a small group of highly driven individuals rather than strong institutional structures.
Her achievements reveal what is possible when talent, vision, and community commitment converge, but they also expose the gaps in funding, infrastructure, and policy support that limit the continent’s broader AI ambitions.
Afonja’s rise is therefore both a celebration of personal excellence and a reminder of the urgent need for more coordinated, systemic investments to ensure that the future of AI in Africa is not carried by a few but built by many.
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