Posted on:

April 3, 2024

Ministry’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy Workshop to Attract 120 Experts from Across the World

HM19 NAIS

The Honourable Minister of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy, Dr. ‘Bosun Tijani today announced the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy Workshop scheduled to take place in Abuja from April 15 – 18, 2024. 

The workshop which is supported by Luminate will bring together 120 leading Nigerian AI researchers and practitioners, technology companies, civil societies, and other groups to co-create a comprehensive national Artificial Intelligence (AI) strategy, leveraging a human-centred design (HCD) approach to formulate a strategy focused on the needs of Nigerian citizens and communities.

“The need to coordinate and harness the power of Artificial Intelligence for national development is a critical element in our journey towards using technology to accelerate productivity in our country,” said Dr. Tijani while making the announcement. “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.”

Dr. Tijani went on to highlight the efforts of the Federal Ministry in engaging with experts and stakeholders from around the world in co-creating our nation’s AI strategy.  

“The need to coordinate and harness the power of Artificial Intelligence for national development is a critical element in our journey towards using technology to accelerate productivity in our country.”

“From the National Artificial Intelligence Research Scheme (NAIRS) to the Fourth Industrial Revolution Technology Application (4IRTA) Demonstration project, we have worked with several of these talented academics and entrepreneurs towards mainstreaming the application of AI in our everyday lives,” he added. 

Expected outcome from the workshop will be a draft national AI strategy document defining the strategic imperatives, policies, investments, implementation roadmap, governance structures, and necessary steps to catalyse Nigeria into an AI-driven economy.

Other partners and organisations supporting the workshop include the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Meta, Google, Microsoft, National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), and Galaxy Backbone. 

Isime Esene

Office of the Honourable Minister

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