This week’s trivia is inspired by Apple’s new $3,500 AR goggles.

A few weeks ago, in a now-deleted tweet, I mentioned I was looking for an exceptional data analyst to feature on the Entering Tech Shorts. 

Almost immediately, I got two recommendations from Tina Okonkwo—a data analyst we featured in Entering Tech #10—and another acquaintance. Both Tina and the acquaintance had recommended the same people: David Abu and Olanrewaju Oyinbooke. Within minutes, I had not only the Twitter handles of these two guys, but their email addresses and phone numbers as well. 

When I asked how they both had these contacts, their responses were similar: David and Ola are popular in the data community because they’re helping newbies learn about data.

This story bears semblance to how Data Community Africa started: a tweet, and people looking to make change. 

In March 2022, David Abu tweeted, “We want to run a data conference in Nigeria that includes all data roles in the workplace. It will be called DATAFEST2022. The goal is to understand different aspects of data and how all data life cycles have evolved over time.”

With Gift Ojeabulu, a data scientist with over 10 years of experience, and Olanrewaju Oyinbooke, Abu hosted the first-ever event showcasing all data roles in the African space. 

But what started off as DataFestAfrica, an event attended by over 4,000 people, has now evolved into a community of like-minded individuals who are relentlessly pursuing three goals: community, job opportunities and scaling—so people in data can grow in their career journeys.

And that’s how Data Community Africa started.

Data analysts, scientists, and everyone in data

2,000

Nil. Absolutely free

Discord

If you’re wondering what the benefits of joining Data Community Africa are, here are a few: 

A. Monthly learning programme: Every month, the community hosts a series of online workshops and tutorials designed to help data professionals in Africa learn new skills and stay up-to-date on the latest trends in data science and machine learning. The programme is open to all levels of experience, from beginners to experienced professionals. In the past, the programmes have hosted tutors like Bitergia’s Ruth Ikegah.

B. Job Opportunities: Data Community Africa has partnered with a number of companies to offer job opportunities for data professionals. For example, it recently partnered with the African Development Bank to offer a data fellowship programme for young data professionals to develop the skills they need to work in the financial sector. It’s also partnered with Propel and Deep Brown Consulting to help data professionals find jobs. Since the community kicked off less than 6 months ago, at least eight community members have found jobs!

C. Skill development: So we’ve mentioned the monthly learning programme at Data Community Africa. But there are even more opportunities where newbies can gain data skills. The community offers a variety of skill development opportunities for data professionals, including online courses, workshops, and meetups. For example, it has partnered with DataCamp—a global data learning platform to offer online courses and certification programmes that data professionals can complete to demonstrate their skills and knowledge.

D. Events: Data Community Africa started from an event, so it stands that the community will keep hosting physical meet-ups and other events for its members. While we have it on good account that DataFestAfrica 2023 is coming soon , members have also participated in datathons where data professionals can show off their skills and win prizes of up to ₦400,000 ($900). 

E. Community: Finally, there’s the first reason Gift and David founded Data Community Africa in the first place: to bring data professionals together in a space where they can grow. And the Community has a lot of that. On Discord, DCA has over 2,000 members while its Twitter page boasts of 17.3k engaged followers.

Speaking of community, here are a few rockstars who you will meet when you join Data Community Africa and what they’re saying:

If you’re a data professional or you’re looking to enter tech through data, the good news is that Data Community Africa is free and ready to help. All you have to do is click a button.

Join Data Community Africa on Discord

The Entering Tech Shorts

Speaking of data, what do data analysts do and how can you become one? In this one-minute video, senior cloud advocate at Microsoft, Olanrewaju Oyinbooke, explains what data analysts do and if Professor X from the X-men really is one.

Watch the 1-minute YouTube Short here!