Ibadan: Miss Omotoke Eniafe, a student of Orita Mefa Baptist Model School, Ibadan, has emerged as the overall best participant at the 2026 AI/Data Science for Her Boot Camp held in Ibadan.
According to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the five-day boot camp was organized by Tech Girls Club and sponsored by Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), culminating in a closing ceremony in Ibadan. Miss Morolaoluwa Ajibola and Miss Anuoluwapo Adepoju secured the overall second and third best positions, respectively.
Eniafe, who is currently in Senior Secondary 2, expressed delight over her achievement, noting that the program enhanced her confidence and broadened her programming skills beyond HTML coding. She remarked that the training instilled a sense of responsibility and independence in her. “I want to be a software engineer. This will actually help me because now, I have learnt the basics of my future career,” Eniafe stated.
Dr. Ronke Sakpere, the Principal Investigator of the program, highlighted that the Ibadan training was the final phase of an initiative that spanned across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones. The training progressed through cities including Ilorin, Yola, Port Harcourt, Zaria, and Nsukka, before concluding in Ibadan. Sakpere emphasized the program’s aim to equip participants with technical skills, resilience, and perseverance necessary for success.
Ms. Wonderful Osalor, Project Manager for AI/Data Science for Her, noted the students’ remarkable improvement in confidence and technical skills over the course of the boot camp. Participants worked on technology-driven solutions addressing community issues such as waste management, traffic violations, and cyberbullying. One team developed an AI-enabled smart waste detector, while another created a smart system targeting traffic-law violations.
Dr. Wilson Sakpere, the Lead Facilitator, praised the facilitators and mentors for their role in the program’s success and encouraged students to continue honing their programming skills. He suggested using mobile applications like PyDroid for practice in the absence of computers.
The program concluded with the presentation of outstanding and excellence awards to participants, as well as medals to the top three students, celebrating their innovation and technical prowess in AI and data science solutions.