By JESSICA DOGO

The Federal Government has inaugurated the Nigeria Artificial Intelligence (AI Scaling) Hub (NAISH) and unveiled the Scaling AI for Development (SAID) Challenge to accelerate AI adoption across public institutions.

The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, unveiled the initiative on Friday in Abuja.

Tijani described it as a major step towards building a globally competitive AI ecosystem capable of addressing Nigeria’s development challenges.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the initiative, NAISH in partnership with the ministry, is supported by a 7.5 million-dollar commitment from the Gates Foundation.

He said that the 7.5 million dollars would provide technical assistance, computing infrastructure, policy support and strategic partnerships for three years to move AI innovations beyond pilot stages into nationwide implementation.

According to him, the initiative is designed to bridge the gap between government institutions and Nigerian AI innovators by supporting the large-scale deployment of proven AI solutions.

“Nigeria’s ambition is not only to develop AI applications, but also to build an enabling ecosystem capable of producing globally competitive technology companies.

“The only technology that has been extremely successful in Nigeria is financial technology, and many people assume it was simply because of brilliant founders.

“That was not the case. The success of fintech came from coordinated investments involving government, regulators, financial institutions, academia and development partners.”

The Minister said government intended to replicate the same ecosystem approach for AI, particularly in healthcare, education and agriculture.

He called for stronger collaboration among government, universities, researchers, technology companies and development partners to develop AI solutions tailored to Nigeria’s unique challenges.

“The day we build the same kind of open ecosystem for health and education is the day we begin to see AI innovations that are unique to Nigeria and capable of solving our own development challenges.”

He said that NAISH formed part of government’s broader strategy to strengthen Nigeria’s AI ecosystem through investments in digital infrastructure, research, computing capacity, fibre connectivity, national data platforms and digital skills development.

Tijani said that innovators participating in the programme would receive free access to the national AI computing infrastructure during the initial phase, significantly reducing the cost of training AI models.

He announced the launch of SAID Challenge, which would identify mature AI solutions developed by Nigerian innovators and connect them with the public sector to address challenges in healthcare, education, agriculture and public administration.

According to him, selected innovators will undergo a competitive process before being paired with government institutions for deployment.

Earlier, Prof. Olayinka David-West, Dean of Lagos Business School and Director of NAISH, said the initiative would help government agencies identify AI-ready problems while providing startups with practical pathways for deploying their innovations.

David-West said the hub would also provide access to local AI computing infrastructure, reducing dependence on foreign cloud service providers and lowering the cost of building AI models.

The Nigeria Country Director of the Gates Foundation, Mr Uche Amaonwu, said AI should be measured by its ability to improve development outcomes rather than by the sophistication of the technology itself.

Amaonwu said that locally developed AI models were essential because many global AI systems failed to adequately reflect African realities, languages and operating environments.

He said AI had the potential to improve learning outcomes through personalised education, strengthen maternal healthcare and expand access to agricultural finance through improved data-driven credit assessment.

Stakeholders at the event said the success of the initiative would depend on Nigeria’s ability to move beyond isolated AI pilot projects.

They also said that the success would scale practical solutions capable of improving public service delivery while positioning the country as a leading AI innovation hub in Africa. (NAN)

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