Women in AI: Charlette N'Guessan addresses data scarcity on the African continent.

Charette N'Guessan is data solutions and ecosystem management Amini - Deep Tech Startup, which uses space technology and artificial intelligence to deal with environmental data button in Africa and global south. She co-founded and led product development for Bace API, a secure identity verification system that uses AI-powered facial recognition technology to combat online identity fraud and address facial recognition bias in the African context. She is also Adviser on Artificial Intelligence to the African Union High Level Group on New Technologies, working on the formulation of the AU-AI Continental Strategy entitled “Using Artificial Intelligence to Promote Socio-Economic Development in Africa” with a focus on building. Africa's AI governance landscape. N'Gesana has also co-authored numerous publications and was the first woman to receive the African Engineering Innovation Award from the Royal Academy of Engineers.

In short, how did you get started in the field of artificial intelligence?

 What drew you to this field? I have an engineering background in both formal and non-formal education. I have always been passionate about using technology to create solutions that positively impact my community. This ambition made me move to Ghana in 2017. My goal is to learn from the England market and start my technical business.

During the start development, the EU and my previous Coground conducted a market survey to determine the challenges of the financial industry that led to identity online fraud. We then set out to create a safe, secure and efficient solution for financial institutions to bridge the gap in serving the unbanked in remote areas and building trust online. This resulted in a software solution using facial recognition and artificial intelligence technology designed to facilitate organizations dealing with online customer authentication while training our models on representative data from the African market. It marked my initial involvement in the AI industry. Note that in 2023, despite our efforts, we encountered a variety of challenges that make us stop commercialization in our product market. However, this experience strengthened my desire to continue working in the field of artificial intelligence.