According to a recent report, it was claimed on the 1st of September that Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, and several other African nations are not considered among the countries leading in innovative Artificial Intelligence (AI) models.
The global AI market is currently valued at over €130 billion and is projected to expand to nearly €1.9 trillion by 2030. A study conducted by Linkee, a company specializing in AI-driven link-building automation, aimed at identifying the nations excelling in the AI innovation sector, revealed that the African continent is not part of this competition.
Despite Nigeria’s absence from the list, the country’s initiatives to digitize its economy have garnered attention from TIME magazine, which recognized Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, as one of the 100 most influential figures in AI for 2025.
Dr. Tijani is leading the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) initiative, which aims to equip 3 million Nigerians with technical skills by 2027. To date, the program has successfully trained nearly 300,000 young individuals through a combination of its digital platform and 220 physical learning centers; it also assists participants in finding employment, primarily through collaborations.
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”There’s an opportunity to enhance the quality of AI by aiding in the digitization of our own reality,” he stated. Many graduates of the 3MTT program are being utilized in the public sector to digitize operations within ministries, creating datasets that can be used to train AI systems with Nigerian data.
One of the initiatives aimed at advancing AI is the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR), which is one of the special purpose vehicles (SPVs) established by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to foster research and development in emerging technologies and their practical applications within the country.
The center will also concentrate on Robotics and Drones, the Internet of Things (IoT), and other emerging technologies, all aimed at transforming Nigeria’s digital economy, in accordance with the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS).
