Overview
The Data Scientists Network Artificial Intelligence (AI) Bootcamp is an all-expenses-paid learning bootcamp that builds Africa's capacity in the use of advanced machine learning and deep learning concepts, and drives the application of AI for socio-economic development.
The bootcamp is driven by a broader strategic intent to accelerate Africa's development through the solution-oriented application of machine learning to solve social and business problems, and to galvanize a data science knowledge revolution improving employability, technological innovations, and sustainable socio-economic development. This reinforces DSN's vision to train one million talents in the next ten years through world-class knowledge and best-practice application.
2026 Edition
The 2026 AI Bootcamp
It is here again!
The Data Science Nigeria AI Bootcamp - a gathering of the best of the best, taught and mentored by world-class experts! You cannot afford to miss this immersion of world-class learning, best-practice knowledge, and cutting-edge mentoring.
The AI Bootcamp 2026 will hold hybrid between October 26 and 31, 2026, and will accept professionals, researchers, and the 400 best candidates from the qualifying hackathon.
Roadmap
The road to the 2026 bootcamp
Six phases carry the 2026 cohort from the first free class to bootcamp week.
DSN Free AI Classes 2026
5th May to 10th Aug
Free AI Classes: Hackathons & Projects
5th May to 10th Aug
Call for Bootcamp Application / Qualification Hackathon
31st Aug to 25th Sept
Validation Quiz and Assessment
7th Sept to 2nd Oct
Publication of the 200 Finalists
2nd to 5th Oct
Bootcamp Week
26th to 30th Oct
DSN Free AI Classes 2026
5th May to 10th Aug
Free AI Classes: Hackathons & Projects
5th May to 10th Aug
Call for Bootcamp Application / Qualification Hackathon
31st Aug to 25th Sept
Validation Quiz and Assessment
7th Sept to 2nd Oct
Publication of the 200 Finalists
2nd to 5th Oct
Bootcamp Week
26th to 30th Oct
Through the Years
Every bootcamp since 2017
From our first bootcamp to last year's edition, a look back at the years that built up to 2026.
Qualification Tracks
Five ways in
Rank on the leaderboard to qualify. Note that ranking alone does not guarantee selection, other criteria are also considered.
Machine Learning Track on Kaggle
Predict product-store sales for DSN Mart, a retail chain, using historical sales records.
DSN Mart operates a chain of stores across Nigeria, from small corner shops to flagship hypermarkets, spread across major urban centers, state capitals, and smaller towns. Like any growing retail business, DSN Mart wants to understand what drives sales at the product level across its different store formats and locations, so it can plan stock, pricing, and store investment more intelligently.
You’ve been given a snapshot of historical product-store sales records and asked to build a model that predicts total sales for a given product at a given store, based on what’s known about the product and the outlet it’s sold in.
This challenge is being used as the qualifying hackathon for the DSN AI Bootcamp. Your rank on the leaderboard is one of the inputs used to select participants for the bootcamp.
View challenge on KaggleData Analytics Track
Project challenge: Audit the Dashboard.
You have joined a retail business as a Data Analyst. Management has already received a dashboard and a set of conclusions based on the supplied dataset. Your task is to independently review the data, determine what can and cannot be trusted, correct the analysis, and produce a more reliable dashboard and set of business conclusions.
What you are expected to do:
Review the supplied raw dataset and the existing management dashboard.
Identify data-quality issues that could affect the reliability of the analysis.
Clean and validate the data using appropriate analytical judgement.
Audit the management claims and determine whether each is correct, incorrect, misleading, or cannot be determined.
Build a corrected dashboard using either Power BI or Excel.
Compare the original dashboard with your corrected dashboard and answer the final analysis questions.
Submit a snapshot of your corrected dashboard together with your completed Answer & Submission Sheet.
Geospatial Track
Theme: Mapping Pathways for Health, Environment & Climate Change.
Create an original GIS map that explores a real-world issue related to health, environment, or climate change using freely available datasets.
Requirements:
Use open datasets such as OpenStreetMap, Google Earth Engine, or national open-data portals.
Any GIS tool may be used.
The map must be your original work.
Agentic AI Track
Project title: Multilingual Topic Generation for Nigerian Languages (Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Nigerian Pidgin).
Goal: Build and evaluate LLM-based approaches for generating topic labels from news text in low-resource Nigerian languages, comparing classical baselines, zero/few-shot prompting, and fine-tuning, and publish the result as a Kaggle notebook.
One-line pitch: Most topic classification/generation work is English-only. This project benchmarks how well modern LLMs handle topic generation in four major Nigerian languages, and shows how much fine-tuning closes the gap.
Poster Track
Submit an abstract for a completed AI/ML project that solves a real problem in your community.
Identify the problem. Showcase your AI/ML solution. Demonstrate the impact.
The project must be completed before the abstract is submitted.
Bootcamp Schedule
What to expect on-site
The full timetable releases October 21, 2026. Here is the shape of the week.
Awards and Opportunities
What's on the line
- Internships from top companies
- Scholarships
- Mr. and Miss Algorithm, Community Value Award
- Best Poster Award
- Pascal Dozie AI School of the Year Award
- Industry Recognition Award
- AI City of the Year Award
Call for Participants
Register
Submit the Data Science Nigeria Artificial Intelligence Bootcamp 2026 form below to be considered for a qualification track.
Sponsors and Partners
Testimonials