The Federal Government has reaffirmed its commitment to building a responsible, inclusive and sovereign artificial intelligence ecosystem that will position Nigeria as a creator rather than a passive consumer of AI technologies.
Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi CCIE, stated this in a virtual address at the InnovateAI Conference held in Lagos, where stakeholders discussed AI’s role in advancing Nigeria’s digital economy and national development.
Inuwa said Nigeria’s ambition under the National AI Strategy is to move beyond adopting foreign AI solutions to designing and owning systems that reflect national values and priorities.
“Our goal is not just to use AI, but to architect and build our own AI systems in Nigeria,” he said, stressing the need for the country to take charge of its AI future.
He explained that Nigeria’s AI drive goes beyond innovation to include governance, infrastructure development, data sovereignty and adaptive policymaking, noting that regulations must evolve alongside technological advancements.
“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 stated, citing the Digital Economy and E-Governance Bill as a key regulatory tool.
The NITDA boss also raised concerns about the dominance of non-African datasets in global AI models, warning that this often results in bias against local dialects, cultures and demographics, and calling for investment in infrastructure to retrain models with inclusive local data.
He further urged strategic partnerships with global technology firms and hyperscalers to build AI infrastructure in Nigeria, emphasising that collaboration, a comprehensive AI lifecycle approach and national guardrails are essential to developing trustworthy indigenous AI systems.
