How Abuja AI firm, created ‘Amina’ to fight COVID-19 — CEO
Faruk Nasir, worked with Al-amin Bugaje, the co-founder, to start up Starfolk Software Technology Limited. The artificial intelligence firm based in Abuja recently unveiled, ‘Amina The Bot’ to interact with people and help contribute to the fight against
Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact – William James
Where did you get the idea for this company? My first experience with programming was in JSS2. We were taught C++ programming language by a Turkish instructor - Mete Yildrim. We were drafted to represent Nigeria in the Informatics Olympiad.
I’ve always loved computers for as far back as I can remember. But, that was the moment when my interest in computers peaked. I aspired to have proficient individuals in all different aspects that make a company work. But, I was confident because I had a friend and partner in crime - Al-amin Bugaje, someone I have known for as long as I’ve known what friendship means. Together, we tried and failed - from small websites to mini mobile apps.
I can tell you, right now, unequivocally, that Starfolk Software Technology Limited is a product of a decade-long trial and error.
What problems are you trying to solve?
Al-amin and I are very conscious and deliberate about our activities. We are very particular about who we are, where we are from and what we are doing to help in the progress and continuity of the society we represent. I am talking about Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria and Africa.
The game plan right now is to study problems in the sectors in Nigeria, and then build tech solutions for them. We will harness technologies like virtual reality and artificial intelligence in this quest.
We have realised that most SMEs find it hard to deploy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems for their businesses because they are too expensive. We have built an offline-first ERP system that we plan on licensing to users on a subscription basis. And, it will be so cheap that kiosks on the streets of Wurno, Sokoto State will be able to afford it.
How did you create ‘AminaTheBot’?
The CTO of iCompass (a Tunisian AI company) - Hatem Haddad is someone I have known for close to 10 years. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we all had think of a way to provide tech solutions that will help in the fight against COVID-19. A gap we have noticed in this fight is in effective communication surrounding the pandemic. A multi-lingual AI-powered chatbot was designed to help provide information in real-time on COVID-19 related questions and, especially, in local languages. The whole initial exercise took two weeks. Since then, we have had lots of volunteers come to the table and help out with one or two things.
What challenges did the team encounter while starting this up?
The main challenge we have is in pushing ‘Amina’ and making sure she reaches the intended audience. We want a keke driver and the suya seller with the cheapest of Android phones to interact and benefit from ‘Amina’s’ wealth of knowledge about COVID-19. We understand that government partnerships will get us a long way in this direction. To achieve this, we have sent out letters, had meetings with some including NIITDA about possible partnerships.
What have you done differently from other responders to COVID-19?
I have come across a lot of chatbots that aim to help users learn about COVID-19, some of which are impressive. None of them are close to what we have in the case of ‘Amina’. It harnesses the power of artificial intelligence and natural language processing techniques to bring an experience so seamless that even users with little or no English proficiency are able to interact with, using their native language.
From the day we went public to this day, Amina has been able to answer more than 10,000 COVID-19 related questions. And more than 1,500 unique users have interacted with her. And each user has asked an average of 8.5 questions. ‘Amina’ is yet to see the peak of her impact. Users can interact with ‘Amina’ from the official site - https://aminathebot. starfolksoftware.com.
Why did the team choose only English and Hausa languages?
‘Amina’ is actively under development. We have not chosen to support only English and Hausa. English and Hausa happen to be languages added at these initial stages of implementation. Work is ongoing to add more languages support, specifically, Yoruba, Igbo and Pidgin.
How would the team sustain this platform post-COVID-19?
AI conversational chatbots will help in the fight that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is fighting. We want to partner up with them as there are lots of ideas we have in the vault we want to unveil to them.
We have also added a donate button to Amina’s official website. All donations will be channelled towards further development of Amina.
Are you making money from this?
We are not exactly ambitious with this project. But, funding will go a long way in making Amina better and more rounded in answering COVID-19 related questions.
What is your advice to youths on prospects in the AI world?
The possibility or likelihood of anything happening is in doing that thing over and over again. We will fail many times over. But, it should never be an excuse to give up. And, just like the great African said, “It always seems impossible until it is done”.
With the odds against us, we should persevere and keep our heads up. Let’s never get tired of learning and practically applying knowledge we have acquired along the way.
It is an amazing future, the future that is tomorrow.