The Federal Government of Nigeria has reaffirmed its commitment to developing a responsible, inclusive, and sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem aimed at transitioning the country from a passive consumer of AI technologies to a creator and owner of indigenous AI systems.
The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, made this known while delivering a virtual address at the InnovateAI Conference held in Lagos.
The conference brought together policymakers, technology leaders, innovators, and other stakeholders to deliberate on the future of artificial intelligence and its potential to drive Nigeria’s digital economy and broader national development agenda.
Inuwa outlined Nigeria’s ambition to move beyond merely using artificial intelligence technologies to building and owning AI systems that align with the country’s values and priorities, in line with the National AI Strategy.
“Our goal is not just to use AI, but to architect and build our own AI systems in Nigeria,” he said, emphasizing the need for the country to take ownership of its AI future.
He explained that Nigeria’s approach to artificial intelligence goes beyond technological innovation to also address governance, infrastructure development, data sovereignty, and evolving policy frameworks.
According to him, responsible AI development requires continuous 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 stated.
Inuwa noted that the implementation of the Digital Economy and E-Governance Bill would provide critical insights that could help refine AI regulations and governance structures in the country.
He also raised concerns about the challenge of data representation in global AI systems, explaining that most AI models are trained on non-African datasets, which often results in biases against African dialects, cultures, and demographics.
“If a model shows bias against a local dialect or demographic, we cannot simply patch it. We must reinvest in infrastructure to retrain it with inclusive and representative local datasets,” he said.
The NITDA boss stressed that developing national AI infrastructure is essential for achieving data sovereignty and ensuring that Nigeria is not limited to being an end user of foreign-developed AI technologies.
He further called for strategic collaboration with global technology companies and hyperscalers to help build AI infrastructure in Nigeria while ensuring that such partnerships respect the country’s local context 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 support efforts to build infrastructure that will allow us to retrain and develop AI models that reflect our realities,” he added.
Inuwa explained that adopting a comprehensive AI lifecycle approach, from responsible data collection and governance to deployment and continuous feedback, would enable Nigeria to move from reacting to global AI developments to proactively designing indigenous AI solutions.
“Without understanding how AI models are trained, how decisions are made, and how they are retrained, it will be difficult to build a responsible and trustworthy AI system,” he warned.
He reaffirmed that the Federal Government remains committed to promoting responsible AI development and is working closely with stakeholders in the technology ecosystem to co-design national AI guardrails.
According to him, platforms such as the InnovateAI Conference and other national AI dialogues are crucial for shaping the future of artificial intelligence in Nigeria.
