By Nigeria is keen of becoming a leading innovator of key artificial intelligence system provider rather than a consumer nation.
According the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, Nigeria’s ambition is to transition from being a consumer of artificial intelligence technologies to becoming a builder and owner of AI systems that reflect national values and priorities, in line with the National AI Strategy.
Inuwa who made this know while delivering a ketynote virtually at the InnovateAI Conference held in Lagos, reaffirmed its commitment to building a responsible, inclusive, and sovereign artificial intelligence ecosystem to enable Nigeria to transition from being a passive consumer of AI technologies to an architect and builder of indigenous AI systems.
“Our goal is not just to use AI, but to architect and build our own AI systems in Nigeria,” he said, stressing that the country must take ownership of its AI future.
He noted that Nigeria’s approach to artificial intelligence extends beyond innovation to include governance, infrastructure, data sovereignty, and policy evolution.
“Responsible AI is never a finished job; it is an iterative journey. Our policies must evolve as the technology evolves, and we must avoid frozen laws by adopting living policies that adapt over time”, he said.
Inuwa cited the implementation of the Digital Economy and E-Governance Bill as a key mechanism for generating insights that will help refine AI regulations and governance frameworks.
While highlighting the challenge of data representation in global AI systems, he noted that most models are trained on non-African datasets, which often results in bias against local dialects, cultures, and demographics.
“If a model shows bias against a local dialect or demographic, we cannot just patch it. We must reinvest in infrastructure to retrain it with inclusive and representative local datasets,” he stated.
He added that building national AI infrastructure is critical to achieving data sovereignty and ensuring that Nigeria is not merely an end user of foreign AI systems.
He further called for strategic partnerships with global technology companies and hyperscalers to build AI infrastructure in Nigeria while aligning with local values and national priorities.
“The world today is a global village. We need to work with global players, but they must understand our local nuances and help us build the infrastructure to retrain and develop AI models that reflect our context,” he said.
Inuwa explained that adopting a comprehensive AI lifecycle approach, from responsible data collection and governance to deployment and continuous feedback, will enable Nigeria to move from reacting to AI developments to proactively designing indigenous AI systems.
“Without understanding how AI models are trained, how decisions are made, and how models are retrained, it will be difficult to build a responsible and trustworthy AI system,” he warned.
