Programme National IA — NOAI 2026
Training a country in AI.
Coordination and delivery of Benin's National AI Programme for secondary-school students: learning platform, National Olympiad, official certificate issuance, and preparation of the finalists for the International AI Olympiad.
- Reference
- LF-2026-01
- Client
- ADSC / Ministry of Finance of Benin
- Sector
- National education · Digital sovereignty
- Period
- 2026
- Technologies
- Next.js · React · TypeScript · Tailwind CSS · PostgreSQL · Vercel
- guided lessons
- 106guided lessons
- linked domains
- 5linked domains
- finalists prepared
- 8finalists prepared
- national programme
- 1national programme
Context
Benin decided to bring its secondary-school students into artificial intelligence and to send a delegation to the 2026 International AI Olympiad (IOAI) in Astana, Kazakhstan. The programme was entrusted to La Forge under the contracting authority of ADSC, attached to the Ministry of Finance. The deliverable was not a website but an unbroken chain: teach, select, certify, send.
Challenge
A national programme is not judged by its landing page. It is judged by what it produces: students who have genuinely learned, a ranking nobody can contest, and a certificate every participant can present. Three constraints shaped the project — students at widely varying levels, often without prior mathematical background; a national competition to run beyond dispute; and thousands of individual certificates to issue without a physical desk.
Response
We built a single pathway across five mutually reinforcing domains — Python, mathematics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and human skills — 106 guided lessons with saved progress, designed to be followed independently. The National Olympiad was built on this shared foundation. After the competition, a public certificate-retrieval space lets each participant collect their official document using the desk number printed on their convocation — a key only a genuine participant holds. Laureates of the International Olympiad preparation bootcamp find a second certificate there.
Capabilities
Progressive pathway across 5 domains
Python (13 lessons), mathematics (3), machine learning (26), artificial intelligence (19) and human skills. Each domain reinforces the others: mathematics explains, Python lets you experiment, machine learning brings data to life.
Self-paced learning with saved progress
Each student advances at their own pace from any device. Progress is preserved, so an interrupted session can be resumed — a real constraint when connectivity is not guaranteed.
Certificate retrieval by desk number
The participant enters the desk number from their convocation, their identity and contact details. The official certificate is returned to them. No desk, no queue, no certificate issued to a third party.
Dual certificate for laureates
Laureates who completed the International Olympiad preparation bootcamp find their second certificate in the same place — the one attesting to the international track.
Programme steering
The programme is steered from our in-house project management tool: progress, milestones, team workload and daily activity reports. A public client knows the state of its contract at any time.
Fallback channel
A participant who cannot find their desk number writes to the administrator from the same page. No edge case ends in a dead end.
In operation
Screenshots taken from the real application.
Outcomes
- A national pathway of 106 lessons open to the country's secondary-school students.
- The 2026 National AI Olympiad organised and adjudicated on a shared basis.
- Eight finalists selected and prepared for IOAI 2026 in Astana, Kazakhstan (2–8 August 2026).
- Official certificates issued in self-service, with no desk and no manual handling.