The Federal Government has disclosed plans to assemble 120 Nigerian researchers, startups, and stakeholders in Artificial Intelligence to formulate a cohesive framework for AI implementation throughout the nation.
The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, made this announcement in a statement posted on Thursday on his X account.
The Minister said the team of AI researchers and startups would come up with this framework at the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy workshop billed for April 15 to 18, 2024, in Abuja.
The workshop is supported by Luminate, a global firm dedicated to driving transregional change.
With their support, the participants will work towards co-creating a comprehensive framework that aligns with Nigeria’s priorities and implementation approach for leveraging AI to improve lives and foster economic growth.
Tijani stated that the resulting strategy will help deliver the priorities and implementation approach towards improving lives and growing Nigeria’s economy through the application of AI.
The statement read in part, “One of the earliest initiatives, from the start of my term in office, was to properly define and outline a comprehensive Artificial Intelligence Strategy for Nigeria.
“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.
“AI offers us the opportunity to leverage technology to solve some of our most complex and urgent challenges in education, agriculture, healthcare, and so much more.
“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.
“From the National Artificial Intelligence Research Scheme (NAIRS) to the Fourth Industrial Revolution Technology Application (4IRTA) project, we have worked with these talented academics and entrepreneurs towards the mainstreaming of the application of AI in our everyday lives.