Education & Skills·Nigeria
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Benin Launches National AI Olympiad to Select Team for World Finals
Benin opened selection for its National Artificial Intelligence Olympiad, aiming to identify the young talent who will represent the country at the International Olympiad in AI in Kazakhstan.
By Africa AI Ledger Desk · 29 June 2026 · 1 min read
Benin's government launched the Olympiades Nationales d'Intelligence Artificielle, a national competition designed to identify the students who will represent the country at the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI) in Kazakhstan.
Building a talent pipeline
The national olympiad is structured as a selection process, testing secondary-school students on AI concepts and problem-solving to narrow the field down to the team that will travel to Astana for the international finals. Officials described the programme as part of a wider effort to identify and nurture AI talent early, rather than relying solely on university-level training.
Second consecutive year
The 2026 selection process built on Benin's first appearance at the IOAI, giving the country's education and digital ministries a template for an annual pipeline connecting secondary schools to the country's national AI strategy and the broader youth-skills agenda championed by the newly created Ministry of Digital Transformation and Innovation.
Source: gouv.bj