Tejumade Afonja

Tejumade Afonja is a passionate researcher and community leader committed to advancing ethical and inclusive AI. She is a doctoral researcher at the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security working at the intersection of Privacy and Machine Learning. 

Beyond her research, Tejumade is a catalyst for grassroots AI education and empowerment. She is the co-founder of AI Saturdays Lagos, a volunteer-driven initiative that provides free, high-quality training in data science, machine learning, and deep learning to African youth—democratizing access to knowledge and opening doors to global opportunities. She is also the co-founder of Artificial Intelligence Teaching Research and Innovation for Africa Ltd/Gte(TRI AI), an NGO committed to revolutionising the teaching, research and innovation in artificial intelligence in Africa.

In 2025, she served as one of the General Chairs for the Deep Learning Indaba, a pan-African charity dedicated to strengthening African AI. Through this role, she continues to champion the vision of an AI future shaped by Africans, for Africans.