President Tinubu recently shared his engagement with Google CEO Sundar Pichai in Paris, highlighting discussions on advancing Nigeria’s role in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital innovation. He revealed that Nigeria and Google are exploring a partnership focusing on five strategic areas: enhancing scalable cloud infrastructure, equipping the workforce with future-ready skills, promoting AI research and innovation, driving cloud adoption, and positioning Nigeria as a global tech hub.
The President emphasized the nation’s existing progress in AI, particularly with Awarri Technologies, a local AI firm collaborating with the government to build essential AI software for Nigeria’s unique cultural, linguistic, and societal needs. This includes developing data capture platforms and a large language model (LLM) for Nigerian languages in partnership with the National Centre for AI and Robotics (@NCAIRNigeria).
“This partnership conversation with Google aligns seamlessly with our Renewed Hope Agenda, which emphasizes economic diversification through industrialisation, digitisation, and innovation,” Tinubu stated. He added that this agenda will empower businesses, foster new opportunities, and strengthen Nigeria’s position in the global digital economy.
The Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy (@FMCIDENigeria) will provide oversight, with the National Information Technology Development Agency (@NITDANigeria) leading implementation efforts.
With these initiatives, Tinubu affirmed Nigeria’s ambition to lead in AI and digital innovation: “Nigeria is poised to take the lead in AI and technology—this is merely the start of an exciting journey!”
