NITDA Reveals How Nigeria, Africa Can Become Active Player In AI Revolution

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has revealed that there is a compelling need for shared infrastructure, locally built algorithms that reflect African values, and strong policies to position the continent as an active player in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution.

The Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, made the revelation while delivering the welcome address at the inaugural GITEX Nigeria Summit 2025, a four-day technology event aimed at accelerating digital transformation and innovation across the country, taking place in Abuja and Lagos from September 1 to 4, 2025.

He emphasised the need for shared infrastructure, locally built algorithms that reflect African values, and strong policies to position the continent as an active player in the AI revolution.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, called on African governments to coordinate their efforts in building artificial intelligence infrastructure and governance.

Without such collaboration, he warned, the continent risks widening its already yawning productivity gap with the rest of the world.

Tijani outlined four pillars for Africa’s AI future: balancing sovereignty with shared governance, equipping young people with technical skills, digitising local realities to build relevant datasets, and investing collectively in infrastructure such as connectivity, compute power, and clean energy.

“Africa’s young people are our greatest advantage,” he said, citing Nigeria’s 3 Million Technical Talent programme as a model for preparing the workforce for an AI-driven economy.

He warned that unless African datasets, spanning language, health, and agriculture, are digitised, the continent will remain dependent on foreign AI models trained on data that “does not reflect us.”