from EMEKA OKONKWO in Abuja, Nigeria
Nigeria Bureau
ABUJA, (CAJ News) – NIGERIA’S government, with support of the private sector, is making strides in adopting an Artificial Intelligence Strategy.
The West African country’s nationals in the Diaspora, working in the area of AI, have also been roped in to accelerate the plans.
Dr Bosun Tijani, the Minister of Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, disclosed this as he announced the National AI Strategy workshop from April 15 to 18 in the capital Abuja.
He said the implementation of such a strategy was a priority when the current administration came to office in 2023.
“The need to coordinate and harness the power of AI for national development is a critical element in our journey towards the use of technology to accelerate productivity in our country,” he said.
The minister said AI offers us Africa’s largest economy and biggest nation by population an opportunity to leverage technology to solve some of its most complex and urgent challenges in education, agriculture and healthcare.
“Recognising the incredible depth of talent of Nigerian descent scattered all over the world working in the field of AI, we very quickly looked to identify some of these leading researchers and started to engage them in a number of our initiatives.”
The ministry has worked with these academics and entrepreneurs under the National Artificial Intelligence Research Scheme (NAIRS) to the Fourth Industrial Revolution Technology Application (4IRTA) project, towards the mainstreaming of the application of AI in everyday life.
Together, they aim to develop a co-created framework for a multi-year strategy and action plan for the research, application and adoption of AI in Nigeria.
“It is my belief that the resulting strategy will help us deliver the priorities and implementation approach towards improving lives and growing our economy through the application of AI,”
The workshop in Abuja, will be supported by civil society organisation, the Luminate Group.
– CAJ News