Picture credit: The Federal Ministry of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy (FMCIDE)

By Olive Arinze

Published June 22nd 2026

Nigeria’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (NAIS), published in September 2025, is an ambitious attempt at strategically roadmapping the country’s current standing on Artificial Intelligence development and future priorities with the technology. It grounds itself in several renowned research frameworks and recommendations, including the African Union Development Agency’s estimates on AI’s impact on the continent’s GDP and the World Economic Forum’s template for developing a national AI strategy. It was published by the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy (FMICDE), in consultation with several public and private stakeholders. The Strategy includes a vision statement for Nigeria to become a global leader in AI, and three strategic objectives covering economic growth, social development, and technological advancement, to be accomplished between 2025 and 2029.¹

These objectives are organised into five key pillars:

1. Building Foundational AI Infrastructure
2. Building and Sustaining a World-class AI Ecosystem
3. Accelerating AI Adoption and Sector Transformation
4. Ensuring Responsible and Ethical AI Development
5. Developing a Robust AI Governance Framework

Given the scope of the NAIS and the nature of this review, this article does not assess every aspiration within each pillar. The selection of areas covered here is based on where public evidence was available and where progress or gaps seemed most significant to assess. Some areas were simply beyond the scope of what one person can cover in a reasonable amount of time. The aim is to offer a directional sense of where Nigeria stands, not a comprehensive audit.

1.0 Building Foundational AI Infrastructure

One way Nigeria has progressed against this goal is through the private sector building of data centers. Data centers are the physical homes of AI, the buildings that store and process the enormous amounts of data that AI systems need to function. News sources vary slightly on the exact number of data centers in Nigeria, as definitions differ on the minimum electrical and computing capacity required to qualify. Estimates range from 16 to 22 facilities, with the majority concentrated in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial and technology hub. Engineer Ikechukwu Nnamani, former president of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), plainly told Vanguard News that to meet President Tinubu’s 2030 goal of a $1 trillion economy, the country needs two data centers in each state, and that the data centers’ active power capacity is only 7% of what is needed.² He also warns that most Nigerian startups building AI-driven tools rely on foreign computing power, because local data centers are not purpose-built to host these workloads. This threatens Nigeria’s data sovereignty and security, as these startups collect citizens’ health, biometric, and financial data and store it abroad.³ Other experts in the article explain that due to Nigeria’s well-documented electricity shortages, the capacity and operating resources these centers rely on are further strained, and that to truly compete internationally in AI, the government would need to tackle these critical infrastructure gaps. ⁴

Beyond physical infrastructure, Nigeria has also made progress in building homegrown AI tools. A notable example is N-ATLAS (Nigeria Automatic Transcription and Language Systems), a suite of AI models released in September 2025 by NCAIR in collaboration with Awarri Technologies and the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy.⁵ N-ATLAS includes a multilingual large language model supporting English, Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba, alongside dedicated speech recognition models for each of the three major Nigerian languages, trained on voices collected from speakers across all six geopolitical zones of the country. The suite has already attracted developer interest, with demos and experimental builds emerging across agriculture, healthcare, translation, and education, suggesting early adoption momentum beyond the research stage. It is worth noting that N-ATLAS was built on top of existing global architectures, specifically Meta’s Llama-3 and OpenAI’s Whisper, rather than developed from scratch. This is a pragmatic and reasonable approach for a resource-constrained environment, but it means Nigeria’s foundational AI infrastructure still depends, at its base layer, on technology developed elsewhere. Nonetheless, the linguistic and cultural adaptation work represented by N-ATLAS is meaningful, and the fact that it is open-source and already enabling local developers to build on it is precisely the kind of national technological capability the NAIS envisions.

2.0 Building and Sustaining a World-class AI Ecosystem

One of the ways the NAIS aims to build a Nigerian AI ecosystem is by hosting national AI conferences that bring together industry professionals and international bodies for knowledge exchange. GITEX Nigeria is one such conference, a branch of GITEX Global, a well-known global technology exhibition.⁶ The inaugural edition was held across Abuja and Lagos from September 1 to 4, 2025, under the theme “Forging the Rise of Digital Nigeria.” A second edition is already scheduled for September 7 to 10, 2026, continuing the conference’s focus on policy, digital infrastructure, and national innovation strategies. That GITEX Nigeria is now an annual fixture signals genuine momentum. Whether it translates into the infrastructure investments and policy reforms the NAIS requires remains a separate question.

Shortly after the NAIS was published, Microsoft announced that it had collaborated with Nigeria’s federal government, Data Science Nigeria, and Lagos Business School in training over 350,000 Nigerians in AI skills. This capacity milestone was part of Nigeria’s Artificial Intelligence National Skills Initiative (AINSI), which has trained over 4 million people since 2021 and aims to train another 1 million by 2028. The programme has reached public sector professionals, developers, and tech users across disciplines including DevOps, machine learning, and AI-powered reporting.⁷ Other initiatives to improve AI skills among the Nigerian population include the AI Collective, established by the National Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR), a NITDA research hub.⁸ This collective hosts regular seminars, hackathons, and training programs for all skill levels and is targeted at the AI talent ecosystem including researchers, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts. At the individual level, several Nigerian innovators are also advancing AI education. Success Ojo, through GMind AI, Realztech Institute, and Gotocourse, has trained over 200,000 people in AI literacy using platforms designed specifically for African learning contexts. Silas Adekunle, through Awarri, the same organisation that collaborated on N-ATLAS, is focused on making robotics and AI education accessible across the continent, building local infrastructure and educational pathways for the next generation. Adebayo Alonge is applying AI specifically to public health challenges, expanding the practical reach of AI skills beyond technology and into sectors where Nigeria’s development needs are most acute.⁹ Taken together, these initiatives suggest that Nigeria is making meaningful progress on the human capital pillar of the NAIS, though the scale of ambition in the strategy will ultimately require these efforts to grow significantly and reach people of all backgrounds and skill levels across the country.

3.0 Accelerating AI Adoption and Sector Transformation

To meet this objective, the NAIS lists the following aspirations: availability of high-quality data for AI research and development, and consistent and reliable data used in AI applications across sectors. This data foundation is crucial for any AI adoption because AI systems are trained on data. The better the data, the better the output from the system, and in Nigeria, the data landscape presents a significant challenge. Nigerian technology experts highlighted this issue at a recent AI Summit, explaining that although Nigeria generates very large amounts of data daily, it fails to properly measure, qualify, manage or use it, thereby significantly increasing the harm that AI trained on this faulty data can cause, including bias and hallucination.¹⁰ In healthcare, while the country’s tech-enabled health ecosystem is growing, largely driven by the private sector, the progress is often arduous because of limited data. Healthcare professionals struggle to access unified patient records, and AI-enabled startups have to supplement limited local datasets with international records to achieve usable results for the systems to be trained on.¹¹ These are not isolated examples. It is a structural problem that the NAIS acknowledges but does not yet have a funded, sector-by-sector plan to address. Until Nigeria invests in the systems, standards, and institutions needed to collect, digitise, and maintain high-quality local data, everything else the NAIS hopes to achieve with data will be difficult to sustain.

The NAIS also lists having clear and actionable plans for AI adoption across multiple sectors as a key aspiration. On this front, Nigeria has yet to attach dedicated budget lines or domestic funding to these sectoral plans, relying instead on external partners to drive implementation.¹² This is a significant gap in progress, because a sectoral adoption plan without domestic funding is difficult to sustain long term, and without first addressing the data quality challenges outlined above, even a well-funded plan would struggle to deliver results. The two aspirations are deeply connected, and meaningful progress on one depends on progress on the other.

4.0 Ensuring Responsible and Ethical Al Development 

In progressing towards this goal, the NAIS notes that an AI Ethics Expert Group (AIEEG) should be established, to provide expert consultation on the technology’s ethical development in the country. Currently, no such group has been established, though civil society and faith-based organisations have begun organising independently around ethical AI governance. The Nigeria Religious Coalition on Artificial Intelligence, in partnership with the Future of Life Institute, has been building AI awareness and advocating for the AIEEG’s establishment, suggesting that demand for this body exists well beyond the technology sector.¹³ This effort to provide ethical guidance on the development of AI technologies in the country resembles that being undertaken by other religious leaders, such as the Catholic Pope. In his recent encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV called for the technology to be built and used for good, given that it affects everyone’s lives and wellbeing.¹⁴

Under this pillar, the NAIS plans for a legal framework that promotes responsible AI development and protects human rights and privacy. In the past few years, Nigeria has steadily built sections of that framework, showing real intent worth examining. To begin with, the Nigerian Data Protection Act (NDPA) became legally enforceable in 2025 and serves as an important foundation for all other AI legislation to stand on.¹⁵ A proposed amendment to the NDPA would require social media companies, some of whom, like Meta, are also significant AI companies whose platforms are increasingly AI-driven, to establish a physical presence in Nigeria.¹⁶ However, this is a provision that makes the bill difficult to pass. The economic and market incentives Nigeria can offer these companies are unlikely to be sufficient motivation for them to comply with a requirement as costly and operationally complex as establishing a permanent physical presence in the country. On the topic of ethical AI specifically, the National Digital Economy and E-Governance Bill 2025 makes significant strides that will be effective if passed into law. It proposes the creation of a regulatory agency empowered to classify artificial intelligence based on its uses and users, impose sanctions on what it calls AI agents, defined as any person or institution that develops, deploys, or makes AI systems available in Nigeria, monitor risks arising from AI across the country, and accredit independent AI auditors. The bill passed through public hearings and lawmakers were targeting its passage into law by March 2026.¹⁷ As of the time of writing, no confirmation of its enactment has been found, meaning that Nigeria’s most comprehensive legislative step toward ethical AI governance remains pending.

5.0 Developing a Robust Al Governance Framework 

Unlike the previous pillars of the NAIS, which each address a specific dimension of Nigeria’s AI ambitions, Pillar 5 is concerned with the overarching framework that would make progress across all of them coherent, accountable, and legally enforceable. Nigeria can build infrastructure, train people, and develop AI tools without a governance framework, but it cannot ensure that any of it is being done responsibly or consistently without one. This is a goal that Nigeria still has yet to reach. That said, there are meaningful steps already being taken worth noting. Under Pillar 5, the goal of establishing a set of guiding principles for AI to inform development and use is set. The NAIS itself achieves this goal. It is publicly available, transparent, and covers Nigeria’s intentions across all dimensions of AI development and use. This document shows that Nigeria has made progress in articulating what AI governance looks like within its borders.

The harder question is whether that articulation is translating into institutional reality. The AI Governance Regulatory Body that Pillar 5 envisions does not yet exist as a standalone institution. The National Digital Economy and E-Governance Bill 2025, if passed, would give NITDA the powers to function in this capacity. Until a legally binding framework is in place, Nigeria’s AI governance exists primarily on paper.

Conclusion

Nigeria’s NAIS is a serious and ambitious document, and the progress documented across these five pillars shows that people, businesses, investors, and government are all contributing meaningfully to bringing it to life. Data centers are being built, millions of Nigerians are being trained in AI skills, homegrown AI tools are being developed in Nigerian languages, civil society is organising around ethical AI, and legislation is moving through the National Assembly. That is a meaningful foundation for a country that published its first national AI strategy less than a year ago.

The central challenge, however, is the distance between that foundation and the institutional and legal structures needed to build on it reliably. Much of what the NAIS envisions still depends on laws that have not been signed, bodies that have not been established, and data systems that have not been built. Among the gaps in the foundation it is laying, the passage of a legally binding AI governance framework is arguably the most urgent. It would translate Nigeria’s AI ambitions into something enforceable, and depending on how fast this happens, it could make Nigeria one of the first African countries to move from AI policy to AI law, a distinction that matters both domestically and on the global stage. The NAIS is a bold step. The next step is making it legally binding.

References

1 Federal Ministry of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy, Lagos Business School, Data Science Nigeria, National Information Technology Development Agency, Nigeria Communications Commission, and Galaxy Backbone. “NATIONAL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE STRATEGY,” 2025. https://ncair.nitda.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/National-Artificial-Intelligence-Strategy-19092025.pdf.

2 Umeh, Juliet. “Nigeria’s Digital Public Infrastructure Hampered by Data Centre Shortage.” Vanguard News, December 24, 2025. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/12/nigerias-digital-public-infrastructure-hampered-by-data-centre-shortage/.

3 Umeh, Juliet. “Nigeria’s Digital Public Infrastructure Hampered by Data Centre Shortage.” Vanguard News, December 24, 2025. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/12/nigerias-digital-public-infrastructure-hampered-by-data-centre-shortage/.

4 Umeh, Juliet. “Nigeria’s Digital Public Infrastructure Hampered by Data Centre Shortage.” Vanguard News, December 24, 2025. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/12/nigerias-digital-public-infrastructure-hampered-by-data-centre-shortage/.

5 Llm – NCAIR. n.d. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://ncair.nitda.gov.ng/llm/.

6 “GITEX NIGERIA | 7-10 SEPTEMBER 2026.” Accessed June 3, 2026. https://gitexnigeria.ng/.

7 Badham, Debbie. “Microsoft Empowers 350,000 More Nigerians with AI Skills.” Source EMEA, December 17, 2025. https://news.microsoft.com/source/emea/2025/12/microsoft-empowers-350000-more-nigerians-with-ai-skills/.

8 AI Collective – NCAIR. n.d. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://ncair.nitda.gov.ng/aicollective/.

9 Michael, Chisom. “Nigeria’s AI Revolution: These 5 Visionaries Are Leading the Charge.” Businessday NG, July 12, 2025. https://businessday.ng/bd-weekender/article/nigerias-ai-revolution-these-5-visionaries-are-leading-the-charge/.

10 Poor Data Quality Slowing AI Adoption in Nigeria, Experts Warn at LCCI Summit – Technology Times | Latest and Breaking Nigeria Tech News. News. April 29, 2026. https://technologytimes.ng/poor-data-quality-slows-ai-adoption-in-nigeria/.

11 Sotonwa, Success. “Nigeria’s Healthtech Startups Are Building Around Fragmented Data Systems.” TC Insights, May 18, 2026. https://insights.techcabal.com/nigerias-healthtech-startups-are-building-around-fragmented-data-systems/.

12 Shehu, Mo, and Gideon Onunwa. “State of AI Policy in Africa 2025.” Report, 2025. https://columncontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/State-of-AI-Policy-in-Africa-2025.pdf.

13 The Nigerian Observer. “Religious Leaders Call for Ethical AI Governance in Nigeria.” February 17, 2026. https://nigerianobservernews.com/2026/02/religious-leaders-call-for-ethical-ai-governance-in-nigeria/.

14 “Encyclical Letter of His Holiness Leo XIV Magnifica Humanitas (15 May 2026).” Accessed June 2, 2026. http://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html.

15 “Nigeria: A 2025 Retrospective and 2026 Outlook.” Accessed June 3, 2026. https://www.techhiveadvisory.africa/insights/nigeria-a-2025-retrospective-and-2026-outlook.

16 “Nigeria: A 2025 Retrospective and 2026 Outlook.” Accessed June 3, 2026. https://www.techhiveadvisory.africa/insights/nigeria-a-2025-retrospective-and-2026-outlook.

17 “Nigeria AI Law Set for Passage by March 2026 Landmark.” Accessed June 2, 2026. https://www.startupresearcher.com/news/nigeria-moves-to-pass-landmark-ai-law-by-march-2026.