My Internship with AI Colab Africa through DOWA has been an insightful experience, which has equipped me with knowledge and skills that’ll be beneficial to my future career.

I had the opportunity to see first-hand how a start-up company operates, from how meetings are conducted to the division of labour. I found this information crucial because I plan to start my own company. The staff at the company were also very nice and open to the intern’s questions, making the whole experience engaging.

One of my highlights during the internship was when two other interns, Anuri and Jamilah, and I met DOWA’s co-founder, Mrs Ola, and Miss Joy (the DOWA internship program coordinator) over lunch, then attended National Diaspora Day, hosted by NIDCOM (the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission). It was a fun and memorable event.

I’m very glad I had the opportunity to partake in the DOWA 2026 internship program. Thank you, DOWA!

DOWA Internship was a valuable experience that gave me greater insight into my career interests while also helping me identify areas I wanted to improve, particularly my interpersonal skills. One of the most valuable experiences during my internship was Interning with DOWA directly and Intern as the Program Coordinator. My main project focused on partner relations, where I conducted midpoint check-ins with partners and worked on drafting a community brief. These responsibilities gave me the opportunity to engage with different people and gain practical experience in professional communication. One of the key skills I developed during the internship was learning how to conduct a meeting, regardless of who I was speaking with. I became more comfortable leading meeting sessions and learned how to accommodate and communicate with different people depending on the situation.

The experience also taught me the importance of stepping outside my comfort zone. One of my biggest takeaways was that I should not be afraid to try something simply because I might make a mistake. The worst that could happen is making a little mistake, getting corrected, and learning from it. At least, I would have gained the experience. Another important lesson I am taking away from my internship is learning how to pitch myself to people without feeling like I am selling myself. I learned to become more comfortable speaking about myself and communicating what I have to offer.

Overall, my internship with DOWA gave me valuable experience in partner relations, conducting meetings, and communicating with different people. More importantly, it gave me insight into my career interests and helped me recognize the areas I want to continue improving as I grow professionally

Through DOWA’s internship placement program, I was connected with Sesi Technologies, where I had the opportunity to contribute to a real technology product and further develop my skills as a software developer. At Sesi Technologies, I worked as a Junior Django/Backend Developer on the VerraOS platform, a platform that helps create traceable agricultural supply chains across Africa by connecting farmers and global food companies.

During my internship, I primarily worked with Python, Django, and the existing backend codebase, implementing new functionality and writing tests. Working within an existing production-oriented codebase gave me the opportunity to understand how real-world software systems are structured and maintained. Throughout the internship, I gained practical experience with Django models, database relationships, backend business logic, and automated testing. I also became more comfortable using Git, debugging issues, understanding existing code, and considering edge cases before implementing changes.

Overall, my internship through DOWA and Sesi Technologies helped me bridge the gap between academic programming and real-world software development. It gave me valuable hands-on experience and a better understanding of how to build and maintain reliable backend systems, while also giving me greater confidence in my journey as a software developer.

My internship experience with YOCO, where I worked as a Finance Intern through DOWA Internhip which gave me the opportunity to gain practical experience in finance while learning more about how different areas of an organization work together.

My main projects during the internship included finance research, shadowing the Head of Operations, and working on an expansion project. One of the most valuable opportunities I had was being given the task of researching financial information for an expansion project. This gave me the opportunity to apply my research skills to a real project and gain practical experience in financial research. One of the most memorable parts of my internship was the internship orientation. It was an opportunity to meet members of the DOWA team, alongside supervisors and department heads, and begin the internship experience together.

Another important part of my experience was the confidence and freedom my supervisor gave me to schedule meetings with department heads and learn from their experiences. Having the opportunity to speak with different department heads and pick their brains about their jobs and experiences allowed me to learn directly from people working in different areas of the organization.

Overall, my internship with DOWA gave me the opportunity to gain practical experience through finance research, work on an expansion project, and learn from professionals within the organization. It was an experience that allowed me to explore my field while gaining exposure to different aspects of the workplace.

My internship placement through DOWA gave me the opportunity to work with Data Science Nigeria (DSN) as an NLP Research and Machine Learning Intern on the Masakhane Project Team, which focuses on developing natural language processing technologies for African languages. I worked across two main areas: Machine Learning Execution, where I worked with Scikit-learn workflows covering binary classification, cross-validation, validation curves, R² scoring, and Ridge and Lasso regression; and Low-Resource NLP Research, where I reviewed an ACL 2026 paper on linguistic diversity and inclusion in NLP, synthesized its six-class language taxonomy, and conducted a readiness assessment of AfriSpeech datasets on Hugging Face based on factors such as data quality, size, diversity, vocabulary, and licensing.

My most valuable experience was being trusted with a research question that had no predetermined answer. Evaluating real datasets against a framework and producing findings the team could use taught me that technical work is not just about data or models, but about solving meaningful problems.

A major personal milestone during the internship was graduating from African Leadership University, making the experience both professionally and personally significant. Thank you DOWA. 

My experience at Data Science Nigeria (DSN) as a Software Engineering Intern gave me the opportunity to apply my skills in a real-world environment while contributing to projects focused on African language technology.

During my internship, I completed weekly transcription and translation tasks across African languages, with a particular focus on authentic, everyday local Yoruba. I also reviewed translations for accuracy and naturalness, helping ensure reliable and consistent data for the dataset pipeline supporting more inclusive African language AI. One of the most meaningful parts of my internship was the opportunity to work with professionals in a real-world environment and learn from their experiences. It helped me build my confidence, understand how teams operate, and connect what I had learned academically to practical situations. It also reminded me of the importance of being open to learning, asking questions, and taking initiative.