Mary-Brenda Akoda has won the 2026 Nigeria Prize for Science and Innovation for GenScan AI, software that can reduce MRI scan times by up to 90% on existing hardware. Akoda becomes the first woman and first millennial to win the Prize as an individual recipient, receiving US$100,000 at the award ceremony scheduled for 9 October 2026.
The winner was announced at the 2026 NPSI Press Conference in Lagos after a unanimous decision by the Prize's Panel of Judges, chaired by Dr. Omobola Johnson. The panel included Professor Aminu Muhammad Bui of Usmanu Danfodiyo University and Collins Udanor Nnalue of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
A record field after a year with no winner
The 2026 competition drew 237 entries under the theme "Innovations in Artificial Intelligence, ICT and Digital Technologies for Development" - the highest number since the Prize began. The 2025 edition concluded without a winner after no entry met the required standards, a decision the Advisory Board said preserved the Prize's integrity.
"The return of a winner after the Prize recorded a 'no winner' verdict in 2025 demonstrates that the Prize's standards remain uncompromising and reflect the quality and potential of Nigerian science and innovation," said Dr. Sophia Horsfall, General Manager, External Relations and Sustainable Development at Nigeria LNG Limited, which sponsors the Prize.
Professor Barth Nnaji, Chairman of the NPSI Advisory Board, said GenScan AI was selected after detailed assessments against criteria including scientific novelty, technical soundness, developmental impact, scalability, and commercial potential. The two other finalists were Kemisola Bolarinwa's EwaDx Smart Bra Diagnostic Device and MedBrain, a paediatric triage system by Pol Ricart and Paul Dinwoke.
How GenScan AI works
MRI scans are slow, scarce, and expensive. Long scan times limit patient throughput, extend waiting lists, and often require sedation for children or anxious patients. GenScan AI uses a one-step consistency-model approach called C-MORE to reconstruct high-quality images from far less acquired data. Hospitals would not need new scanners - only software for existing compatible hardware. A 20-minute scan could be reduced to two minutes.
"The work's AI-powered MRI reconstruction technology directly addresses a critical healthcare challenge by significantly reducing MRI acquisition times while maintaining, and potentially enhancing, image quality," Professor Nnaji said.
Nigeria had 58 installed MRI machines according to a 2016-2018 survey published in the Pan African Medical Journal, though no single official database confirms the current number of functional units. GenScan AI would not increase the physical count of machines, but it could enable every compatible scanner to process far more patients, effectively expanding usable capacity without new hardware purchases. The judges noted this makes it particularly relevant for resource-constrained healthcare systems.
Who is Mary-Brenda Akoda?
Akoda holds a First-Class Honours degree in Computer Science from Goldsmiths, University of London, and an MRes with Distinction in AI for Science & Research from Imperial College London, where she was a Google DeepMind Scholar. She is a former software engineer and AI researcher at Microsoft, including at its Mixed Reality and AI Research Lab in Cambridge, and now leads GenScan AI as founder and principal researcher.
Her earlier work includes patented AI for diabetic retinopathy detection in Nigeria and a drone-based emergency-response concept developed at the African Leadership Academy in South Africa. Her research at Imperial focused on deep generative models for MRI reconstruction, supported by a Fetch.ai Compute Award in February 2025.
Akoda's motivation stems from personal experience - delayed diagnoses led to the loss of her grandfather. She is from the Calabar South Local Government Area of Cross River State.
Recognition beyond the Prize
GenScan AI has attracted several other awards in 2026. Innovate UK named Akoda among 100 women founders shaping the UK's future industries, citing the technology's potential to "speed up diagnosis, reduce NHS waiting lists, and improve care for millions of patients." The company also won a social innovation award and a £10,000 grant in May 2026, and received the Founderland Forward Grant of $10,000 in late 2025.
The Nigeria Prize for Science and Innovation, sponsored by NLNG, carries a $100,000 award and is one of Africa's largest. The 2026 outcome marks the 12th time a winner has been recognised in the Prize's 22-year history.
Why this matters for science and research professionals
GenScan AI demonstrates a practical path for deploying AI for Healthcare in resource-limited settings without requiring capital-intensive hardware upgrades. The one-step consistency-model approach tackles a specific bottleneck - MRI acquisition time - that directly affects patient throughput and diagnosis speed. For researchers working on medical imaging or health systems in low-resource environments, Akoda's work offers a concrete case study in moving from academic research to clinically applicable software that won unanimous approval from a panel evaluating both scientific merit and real-world scalability.
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