A child prodigy, Zainab Akintola has achieved outstanding academic success at a very young age.
In a rare accomplishment, Zainab, a Nigerian girl of Yoruba extraction graduated from secondary school at just 12 years old and earned 30 professional certifications in Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence (AI) by age 14.
Initially, Zainab’s dream was to become a doctor. Growing up, her father, who lovingly called her “Doctor Zainab”, always encouraged her to pursue medicine, emphasizing the need for more Muslim female doctors in Nigeria.
Unlike most children her age, Zainab’s education moved at an accelerated pace. With her exceptional intelligence and dedication, she completed secondary school at just 12 years old.
Confident in her abilities, she sat for the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and scored an impressive 262 over 400 — a result that qualified her for a medicine programme.
However, she was soon met with disappointment when she discovered that she did not meet Nigeria’s minimum age requirement of 16 for university admission.
”I was devastated to learn that I couldn’t gain admission due to Nigeria’s 16-year minimum age requirement for university enrollment,” she said.
Rather than let the setback discourage her, Zainab’s father encouraged her to explore software engineering, explaining how AI is revolutionizing healthcare. The idea resonated with her and Zainab decided to give tech a shot.
Zainab enrolled in several world-renowned programmes to develop her tech skills, including ALX Software Engineering Programme for Front-End Development, Techvinson Academy for Back-End Software Engineering, and KemonAI for AI & Machine Learning Specialization.
She also enrolled in programmes at Udemy, RITA Africa, SheCodes, and GreatLearning where she learned courses in Web Development, AI, and Machine Learning.
Through these programmes, she mastered programming languages like C, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, and Python. She also became proficient in frameworks like React and Bootstrap.
To apply her knowledge, Zainab worked on several innovative projects, including an e-commerce website, a real estate app, a Personal Portfolio Website, AI Chatbots for schools & law firms, a Poem Generator, and a Quote Generator.
Each project sharpened her problem-solving and creative thinking skills. Despite her impressive achievements in tech, Zainab’s love for medicine remains strong. She now looks forward to a future where she can merge her AI expertise with medical innovation.
Though she still has two years before her admission into the university, Zainab said she plans to dive into more research, work on advanced projects, and look for scholarship opportunities abroad while waiting.
Zainab hopes her journey will inspire other young people to stay resilient in the face of challenges.
She said, ”Look for other possibilities and continue to learn. Often, the path you didn’t expect can lead to the greatest rewards.”
