…Secures Top-Six Finish in National AI Agent Challenge

Bluebulb, a leading cross-border payments and treasury management company, has achieved national recognition after its Innovation Team secured a Top-Six finish in the highly competitive DSN x Bluechip Technologies LLM Agent Challenge 3.0, one of Nigeria’s largest artificial intelligence competitions.

The team’s groundbreaking solution, the Naija Persona Agent, stood out among more than 590 entries submitted from over 30 states across the country, earning Bluebulb formal recognition and a cash prize from Bluechip Technologies.

The achievement represents a major milestone in Bluebulb’s innovation journey and underscores the company’s growing investment in artificial intelligence as a strategic driver of business growth and customer engagement.

Organized by Data Science Nigeria (DSN) in partnership with Bluechip Technologies, the LLM Agent Challenge 3.0 challenged participants to develop AI-powered agents capable of solving real-world problems using large language models. Within an intensive ten-day development period, Bluebulb’s team successfully designed and deployed a custom AI model, built a customer-facing application, and produced a comprehensive research paper detailing the solution’s architecture, methodology, and findings.

At the heart of the project was the Naija Persona Agent, an AI platform trained on over 4.2 million Nigerian consumer interactions. The solution was designed to understand the unique ways Nigerians communicate, shop, engage with brands, and make purchasing decisions—an area often overlooked by globally trained AI models.

For Bluebulb, whose core business revolves around facilitating seamless global payments for African businesses, the project aligns with a broader vision of leveraging local intelligence to build more relevant products and strengthen customer engagement across African markets.

Speaking on the achievement, Odunayo Rotimi, Data and AI Automation Manager at Bluebulb, said:
For too long, African businesses have relied on AI systems trained predominantly on data from markets with vastly different consumer behaviours, languages, and cultural contexts. By training on millions of Nigerian consumer interactions, we have demonstrated that Africa can build intelligent systems that truly understand its people. We believe the next wave of AI innovation on the continent will be driven by solutions developed on African data, for African markets.”

Also commenting, Ola Daramola, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Bluebulb, praised the team’s performance and commitment to innovation.

“I am incredibly proud of what the team accomplished in just ten days. Their success reflects the culture of curiosity, excellence, and continuous innovation that we are building at Bluebulb. As we continue to intentionally develop AI capabilities across the organisation, this achievement demonstrates the value of investing in talent, innovation, and locally relevant technology.”

The project was delivered by Bluebulb’s Data and Innovation Team under the leadership of Chief Innovation Officer, Gbenga Osowe. Team members included Odunayo Rotimi, Ezra Ogianyo, Esther Oyenekan, Folusho Obitusin, Opeyemi Ogundaisi, Franca Uvere, Emmanuel Ashinze, Sharon Oseghe, Olaoluwa Sipe, Tosin Folorunsho, and David Johnson, whose expertise in artificial intelligence, data science, research, product development, and innovation contributed to the success of the Naija Persona Agent.

The recognition further positions Bluebulb among a growing group of Nigerian technology companies driving the development of AI solutions tailored to Africa’s unique realities and opportunities.