Thursday, June 18, 2026

The Sun Nigeria

Bluechip technologies hosts Africa’s largest data and AI summit

 

The Third edition of the Bluechip Data and AI Summit has taken place in Lagos, bringing together over 30 leading speakers, more than 4,000 in-person attendees and over 1,000 virtual participants for high-level conversations on Africa’s evolving artificial intelligence ecosystem.

Bluechip Technologies Limited, one of Africa’s leading enterprise technology and digital transformation companies, has successfully hosted the third edition of the Bluechip Data and AI Summit 3.0, bringing together some of the continent’s most influential business executives, technology leaders, regulators, investors and innovators for one of Africa’s most significant conversations on the future of artificial intelligence.

 

 

Held at Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, the summit was themed “The Future, Now: AI-Driven Transformation for Africa,” and served as a platform for cross-sector dialogue around the opportunities, challenges and practical realities of deploying AI technologies across Africa’s rapidly evolving economic landscape.

The summit featured a full-day programme comprising keynote addresses, panel discussions, fireside conversations, product unveilings and the live grand finale of the DSN x BCT LLM Agent Challenge, a national AI hackathon organized in partnership with Data Science Nigeria, with a total prize pool of ₦4 million.

 

 

The event opened with keynote addresses from senior government and international AI leaders.

Representing the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr. Aristotle Onumo delivered the government keynote, outlining Nigeria’s emerging artificial intelligence policy framework, national digital transformation agenda and regulatory direction for AI adoption.

International AI strategist Rosanne Werner, Founder and CEO of xcelerateiq.com, delivered the global keynote, sharing insights on translating AI strategy into measurable business execution and highlighting growing international confidence in Nigeria’s position within Africa’s expanding AI ecosystem.

Summit 3.0 featured over 30 high-level speakers representing banking, telecommunications, energy, financial services, government, venture capital and enterprise technology.

Notable speakers included:

Kola Aina – Entrepreneur, Creative, and Angel Investor, The Founding Partner, Ventures Platform

Access Holdings Plc Leadership Representatives

First Bank of Nigeria Technology Executives

Fidelity Bank Plc Technology Leadership

MTN.ng Executives

Nigeria LNG Limited Innovation Leaders

Representatives from the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, and Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission

Additional participants also represented leading institutions including kpmg.com, tvcnews.tv, Capital Club Lagos and the American Business Council Nigeria.

The Conversations: Conversations Focused on Nigeria’s Most Critical AI Questions

The summit featured six major panel sessions addressing the practical implementation of artificial intelligence across sectors.

AI Adoption within Banking and Fintech Institutions

Infrastructure Development required to Power AI Systems at scale

Regulatory and Governance Frameworks for responsible AI Deployment

Workforce readiness and Talent Development in an AI-Driven Economy

The role of Women Leading Innovation in Data and Artificial Intelligence

AI Adoption across Nigeria’s Energy and Industrial Sectors

A fireside conversation featuring investor Olumide Soyombo and venture capital leader Kola Aina examined investment opportunities, startup growth and the future of AI capital deployment across Africa.

The summit was supported by an extensive global partner ecosystem including major technology companies such as oracle.com, aws.amazon.com, dell.com, huawei.com, salesforce.com, wso2.com and datasciencenigeria.ai.

A major highlight of the summit was the unveiling of Bluechip Technologies’ new AI-Native Enterprise Ecosystem, introduced by Bluechip Technologies Ltd – Managing Director and Co-Founder, Kazeem Tewogbade. According to him, the ecosystem represents the company’s strategic evolution from enterprise technology integrator into a product-driven AI Company and is structured around three integrated layers which include:

A Data Ecosystem designed for Enterprise-Scale Data Management and Intelligence

A Business Operations Ecosystem focused on Automation, Compliance and Operational efficiency

An Enterprise Intelligence – Fabric embedding predictive intelligence and automation into enterprise decision-making systems.

At the summit, YarnGPT was launched as African-Built Generative AI Platform, which was introduced by Bluechip Technologies as, its proprietary African-built generative AI text-to-speech platform designed specifically for African languages, accents and local communication realities.

The platform currently supports English, Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa, with expansion into additional African languages underway.

Speaking during the unveiling, Kazeem Tewogbade stated: “Most AI models were built to understand the world. YarnGPT was built to understand our voices, our languages, our accents and our stories.”

Speaking on the success of the summit, Kazeem Tewogbade said:

“The Bluechip Data and AI Summit was founded on the belief that Africa deserves a world-class platform for serious AI conversations. Three editions later, the caliber of leaders gathered here confirms what we have always believed — Africa is not participating from the sidelines. We are actively shaping the future of this conversation.”

Co-founder Olumide Soyombo added: “What stands out today is how the conversation has evolved. We are no longer debating whether AI matters to Africa. The focus has shifted to how we build, regulate, fund and scale AI responsibly for long-term impact.”