The Nigerian government has been advised to gather and utilize data for artificial intelligence (AI) innovation by Hajiya Rakiya Shuaibu, an IT Management Consultant and former Director of ICT at the Central Bank of Nigeria. She emphasizes that without data, AI models have nothing to be trained on.
Shuaibu made this call themed, “How to Make Money Using AI: Value Creation for Businesses, Entrepreneurs, and Government.”
She noted that data exists but is fragmented across organizations like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and National Identity Management Commission (NIMC). This separation hinders effective integration and utilization.
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The former Director of ICT at the Central Bank of Nigeria stated that there is currently no government initiative to address these data issues, which is necessary for leveraging artificial intelligence effectively. She highlighted the need for proper data collection, extraction, transformation, and cleaning to ensure that the data is reliable and usable for building AI models.
“Data exists, but it is in silos—CBN, NBS, NCC, NIMC. Some of it is still on paper, although there are efforts to digitize it. The government needs to harness and consolidate this data.
“I am not sure the government, as an entity, is looking at harnessing and consolidating this siloed data, but I think it is something we have to do as a nation. Otherwise, we are not likely to reap the full benefits of artificial intelligence. Without data, what are you training your model on?” She stated.
Hajiya Shuaibu noted that if the government harnesses and consolidates data, it will create a credible source that enables the development of models for AI to leverage, driving AI adoption and innovation in Nigeria to optimal levels.
