Technology is key for attaining the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063, Professor Goski Alabi, the President of Lawer Open University, has said.

The AU Agenda 2063 is the blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future.

She said technology was the language and the tool Africa needed for the 21st century and to achieve the continent's desired aspirations in the African Agenda 2063 and the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the agenda 2030.

She said, she was confident that Africa would not be left out of the digital and technological revolution.

Prof Alabi made the remarks at the opening ceremony of a workshop dubbed, “An Introduction to Machine Learning” in Accra.

The workshop was a collaboration between the National Open University Nigeria (NOUN), Africa Centre of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Learning (ACETEL); the Lawer Open University; and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

ACETEL is a World Bank assisted project supported by Association of African Universities (AAU), and the National Universities Commission (NUC), Nigeria.

Machine learning is a subfield of artificial intelligence. The goal of machine learning is to understand the structure of data and fit that data into models that can be understood and utilized by people.

The virtual workshop held concurrently at the Lawer Open University and the KNUST was to equip participants to work with common machining learning tools and formulate practical problems for machine learning.

In all 35 participants from each of the two institutions participated.

Prof Alabi noted that the idea of the workshop was to provide some skills in machine learning to position them to participate in the internet of things, such as big data, artificial intelligence and robotics.

She said machine learning was central in the technological interventions; and hoped it would open the door for many more of such skill-based training in Ghana.

Prof Olufemi A. Peters, Vice Chancellor, NOUN, in his virtual speech to the workshop, said it was splendid that the institutions (NOUN, Lawer Open University and KNUST) were cooperating in the field of artificial intelligence.

He said artificial intelligence promised to deliver some of the most significant innovations of this century, such as self-driving cars, robotic assistants and automated disease diagnosis, and building capacities in artificial intelligence could provide Africa with limitless opportunities for professionals to work on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence development.

Dr Adewale Adesina of ACETEL, said building capacity would deliver technology solutions in Africa. “We are in the age, where people call it the fourth industrial revolution; meaning that we are in an age where computers, artificial intelligence are doing a lot and Africa should not be left behind,” he said.

This, Dr Adesina said, was why many initiatives were on to make sure that capacity was developed across the African sub-region for people to develop applications and solutions to their basic needs.

He said artificial intelligence cuts across all sectors of the economy, all sectors of human endeavour today, so Africa needed to participate in it.