Gen AI Network to hold Nigeria’s first creative AI open competition ‘Prompt to Screen’

Gen AI Network (GAIN), a platform propagating the popular use of artificial intelligence among young Nigerians, is set to hold Nigeria’s first creative AI competition. This was disclosed to Technext by Michael Osumo, the Program Manager of GAIN’s parent company, Instig Labs.

The Prompt to Screen competition, open to everyone, has already received hundreds of applications. The competition will begin on November 8 and end on December 13. It will feature two categories: Creative AI for storytelling and Creative AI for builders.

Participants in the storytelling category get weekly themes. They will be required to create AI-powered art, music or videos based on those themes. A winner will be announced every week leading up to the finale. 

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As for participants in the building category, they will be expected to build AI-powered software for creative media. While there will be no weekly winners for this category, final winners will be announced on December 13.  

Participants can apply individually or as part of a team. However, prizes will be awarded based on the work submitted, not on the number of people making up the team. Teams will, therefore, be required to share the prize among themselves.

Speaking about the competition, the program manager said the idea is to make AI creative a shared resource rather than a private advantage.

“We want AI creativity to become a shared resource, not a private advantage. The Prompt To Screen Competition is our first large-scale expression of that mission, bringing together students, creators, and startups to produce films with AI and learn through collaboration rather than isolation,” he said.

Paige Bailey, AI Developer Relations Engineering Lead at Google DeepMind, will deliver the keynote speech titled “AI and the Future of Storytelling” at the finale. The judges include Hilda Edet (Hillz), a multidisciplinary musician and creative director, and Ejike Kanife, who has spent nearly a decade in technology reporting and currently serves as the Editor of a leading technology media organisation, Technext.

Other judges are Olawale Ibitoye, a software engineer and creator of AgendifyNow, a productivity app designed to help users manage tasks and agendas with clarity and focus, and Amir Mušić, a creative strategist and AI influencer known for helping creators and brands unlock growth through AI-powered storytelling and visual innovation.

The judges also include Odufa Oshiomah, a content specialist at Falcon Aerospace with a strong background in crafting impactful narratives within the aviation sector, and Oladayo Olufade, who serves as Group IT Head at EbonyLife Group, where he leverages extensive experience in banking, finance, and media to drive technology strategy and infrastructure across the entertainment-business spectrum.

Prompt to Screen goes beyond AI competition

The larger vision of the Prompt to Screen program goes beyond a single competition, according to the organisers. It is a part of GAIN’s vision to establish creative AI labs across campuses as communities of practice, where students can experiment, build, and learn in the presence of their peers.

According to the Founder of Instig Labs, Chukwuerika Achum, these hubs are not just training hubs but developmental spaces with the capacity to power the future of Africa’s creative economy.

“These are not just training hubs; they are R&D environments for the African creative economy. AI has changed how creative work gets done. However, the state-of-the-art models are still out of reach for most people in this part of the world. We’re changing that through Creative AI Labs, where members get free access to these resources and build skills,” he said.

He noted that Students will produce not only films and digital art, but also software, workflows, and tools that make creative production faster and more accessible for others. Just as Nollywood and Afrobeats demonstrated that cultural IP can become a global export, the Creative AI Labs represent an investment in the next wave of value creation.

He further noted that for decades, African creativity has lived under the shadow of scarcity. Not a lack of ideas but a shortage of the tools, time, and infrastructure needed to execute them. For instance, making a short film required renting equipment at rates that could swallow an entire student budget. Editing required knowing someone with a decent workstation. Animation was reserved for the few who could endure weeks of rendering and months of revision.

“Now, at a Creative AI Labs session, a university student shows up with nothing but an idea. No gear. No budget. By the end of the day, she’s built a storyboard, generated visuals, scored a soundtrack, and cut a 30-second teaser. One laptop. Zero friction,” Chukwuerika said.

The Prompt to Screen Challenge and the Creative AI Labs are not bets on flashy tools. They are bets on faster learning cycles, better stories, and wider access to opportunity. The teams that will thrive are those who combine sharp taste with repeatable workflows and a commitment to ethical creation.

As UNDP Nigeria’s Digital Innovation Officer, Toyin Bamidele (Batel), emphasised during the ecosystem co-creation engagement session hosted at the UNDP Innovation Centre in Lagos, “real progress in this space won’t come from isolated breakthroughs but from local collaborations that pool talent, data, and context.”