We’ve facilitated $750k worth of scholarships for African tech stakeholders, says Yabacon

Yabacon, a community of young Nigerian techpreneurs, has facilitated $750,000 worth of scholarships for stakeholders across Africa’s technology space.

Speaking at a meet-up organised in Lagos, Jesse Essang, the founder of Yabacon, said the scholarship is funded by Boundless Pay, a financial technology company.

He added that the grants are for studying cybersecurity at a US-based University and are only available to attendees of the meet-up.

Yabacon, launched last year, seeks to address the issue of fragmented technology communities on the continent by providing global solutions.

Essang said the community has grown into “something that has the potential to drive impact”.

“By this time last year, we started looking into the possibilities of using communities to drive innovation, and that was what led to Yabacon,” he said.

“And we are so excited to watch it grow into something that has the potential to drive impact.”

During a panel discussion at the event, Ehidiamen Okojie, a scrum master, dismissed artificial intelligence (AI) as a terminal threat to human jobs in the foreseeable future.

He said AI will always need humans to provide data for its tools to work efficiently.

“AI is divided into two: narrow and general AI. What tools like ChatGPT is doing today is narrow. Narrow AI can only attend to one task at a time. But the AI that we are using today will never get to the point where it will replace human beings,” Okojie said.

“AI needs data to be able to function properly. And it is us, the human beings, that give it that opportunity to be able to work. That provides it with data.

“For now, Africans will only continue to consume those AI tools. What I see happening down the road is that the more we continue to use these tools, the AI will eventually begin to provide whatever we need from an African perspective.”

Theodora Chimonez, a tech product manager, and Clara Okunzunwa, a voice-over artist and tech enthusiast, also spoke at the event.

Meanwhile, Essang noted that anyone interested in the opportunity the platform offers can go to the Yabacon website to join the discord channels created for the community.