In Lagos, Nigeria, there is a grassroots movement teaching robotics and artificial intelligence to children as young as eight. Smair Foundation is on a mission to make AI and robotics education accessible, foster innovation and prepare young minds with hands-on experience to stand out in the real world. Faithful Ajah, who helped bring the Foundation's mission to life, sees his own curiosity and the passion to build something reflected in the young minds at the Smair Foundation.
“I was the kind of person who would not let most things slide,” recalls Ajah, “If you said, for example, the sun sets at 6pm, I would ask why it wasn’t 6.30pm. I was that kind of child.”
Ajah’s inquisitive nature led him on a scientific journey that saw him tinker with electronics as a child, build websites in secondary school, and later graduate with a degree in physics. Ajah went on to do research in particle physics, strengthen his quantum physics knowledge, and take a computing class in data science so that he could combine quantum computing and quantum information technology.
Turning passion into practical output
With his quest for answers never diminishing, Ajah then went on to complete the data science programme through ALX Africa, the pan-African organisation that trains tech talent and founders. ALX sharpened the stubbornness within him, says Ajah, and provided a clear structure for turning his passion into practical output. Soon after, he competed and won a pan-African AI hackathon. This was a turning point. “Finishing at the top of the hackathon was confirmation for me that the work I was doing was real,” recalls Ajah, “giving me the clarity and impetus to accelerate that work into something meaningful and measurable.”
According to Ajah, what ALX seeded in him could not be contained, and this grew into helping establish a company called AI & Robotics Innovation Technologies (AIR) and the Smair Foundation. While Air is a robotics-engineering partnership that offers training, consulting, robotics kits and school-lab setups, Smair works specifically with youth and children through the provision of hands-on AI, robotics, coding and technology education.
Both organisations converge around one simple belief, which is that every child deserves the opportunity to become an innovator. Through the combination of Air’s educational outreach and the Smair Foundation’s dedicated training initiatives, a thousand (and counting) children and young people have been exposed to the power of AI. From school partnerships and curriculum-aligned interventions, to robotics clubs and dedicated youth-focused events, Air and Smair Foundation have together enabled a growing community committed to building Africa’s technological future.
A generation thinking ahead
Harnessing the opportunities for Africa’s tech future is a critical point of discussion for Ajah. “The common discourse is that my generation is filled with people who do not think five steps beyond their immediate future,” he says. “I believe that my generation wants to leave a legacy. We are aware of the potential that today’s technological tools have to materially change our communities right now.”
Growing AIR's work in robotics
Aligning with Ajah’s continued pursuit for knowledge, Air’s work continues to expand. Earlier this year the team won the Lagos qualifier and placed third at the Nigerian finals of the UN-based Robotics for Good Youth Challenge with their autonomous agricultural robotic prototype, to fight food insecurity. This product is currently being taken to market, backed by VC funding. In addition, Air is building computer vision systems, and launching robotics solutions built specifically for African environments.
A major milestone for both Ajah and Air was becoming the sole partner for Mechatron Robotics in Nigeria. Mechatron Robotics is a specialist, franchise-based, Stem education company that runs robotics, coding and AI classes for school-age students and has trained more than 50,000 students in nine countries. “If you had told me at the start of the year where I'd be today, I might not have believed you. Becoming the sole partner for Mechatron Robotics in Nigeria has been an incredible journey, providing me with valuable lessons about leadership and people, as well as robotics,” says Ajah.
For Ajah, this work is not only about building technology but proving that his generation can see further than the obstacles directly ahead of them. He wants to help develop a visible proof point of Nigerian and African innovators actively building with the resources already available to them, without waiting for the tools to be handed to them. Through AIR and the Smair Foundation, Ajah hopes to leave behind more than a company or a curriculum, but a generation of young Africans convinced they can build the future themselves.
