Wednesday:

• Dr. Tijani’s first official activity for the day was a meeting with Will Stevens, U.S Chargé d’Affaires, Ad Interim, and Christine Harbaugh, Economic Counselor, U.S Embassy, Abuja, in his office. Discussions at the meeting centred on how to support the Ministry in delivering on the objectives outlined in its Strategic Blueprint, especially on infrastructure development financing, upcoming Artificial Intelligence (AI) Conference, launch of Nigeria Startup House, and more. Also at the meeting, the Honourable Minister officially received an invitation to the U.S later this year to engage multi-sector stakeholders in high-level conversations around technology and innovation for growth and development.
• He then attended the All Progressives Congress (APC) e-Register Train the Trainers’ Workshop where he delivered an address on the importance of technology in bringing a more diverse demographic, particularly the younger population, to participate in the political process. The event was attended by the Party Chairman, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje; Honourable Minister for Innovation, Science & Technology, Uche Nnaji; Members of the National Working Committee; and other APC chieftains.
• The Honourable Minister’s next engagement was a virtual meeting with Ayotunde Coker, CEO, Open Access Data Centres (OADC) to discuss issues around implementing the recently approved initiative to facilitate the delivery of 90,000km of fibre-optic cable which is poised to take Nigeria’s connectivity backbone to a minimum of 125,000km.
• Dr. Tijani later had another virtual meeting, this time with a representative of ICEYE Limited, Toni Pöllänen. The meeting was to explore areas of collaboration between the Finnish microsatellite manufacturing company and the Ministry with a view to advancing Nigeria’s digital transformation objectives. The Honourable Minister had recently embarked on an official trip to Finland where he engaged with key public and private sector stakeholders on driving critical investments to Nigeria.
• His last engagement of the day was a meeting with representatives of the African Development Bank (AfDB) to discuss updates on the proposed Fibre Fund set up to deploy fibre optic broadband across Nigeria and drive down cost of connectivity.
• AfDB was represented by Uyoyo Edosio, Principal Innovation and Digital Expert and Nick Williams, Head, ICT Operations Division.

Thursday:

• The Honourable Minister travelled to San Francisco, U.S where he joined other global technology sector leaders at the ‘Atoms 4 Peace’ for Artificial Intelligence Workshop organised by the Stanford University Centre for International Security and Cooperation. Dr. Tijani was invited for the Workshop in recognition of his leadership role in advancing the course of AI globally, and particularly as a representative voice for the Global South in conversations around the cutting-edge technology. Themed ‘Lessons from the Nuclear Age for AI’, conversations on the first day of the Workshop, which was a working dinner, centred around governance and regulation for AI using occurrences in the Nuclear Age as cross-reference.

Friday: 

• Discussions on Day 2 of the Stanford University Artificial Intelligence (AI) A4P Workshop focused on AI infrastructure and examining varying perspectives around the benefits of the technology between the Global North and South. In his wide ranging comments during the workshop, the Honourable Minister spoke extensively on the potential effect of AI on productivity from the perspective of the Global South, as well as the need for AI to be inclusive. He also spoke about the challenges around misinformation and the potential lack of trust that this could cause. He emphasised the need for developments in the sector to focus on on addressing these challenges to ensure that the benefits of the technology outweigh any potential misuse. Organisations represented at the Workshop include the US State Department, Department of Commerce, Stanford University, Meta, OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Rockefeller Foundation, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, McKinsey & Company, amongst other leading bodies working in the field of AI. The expectation is that the conversations and outputs from this workshop will serve as input into global efforts to shape the use and application of AI for the common good.

SATURDAY

• While in San Francisco, Dr. Tijani visited the headquarters of Zipline, a global drone logistics company, with operations in Nigeria. He was taken around the facilities by Keenan Wyrobek, co-founder and CTO, and Miki Sofer, Senior Vice President, Partnerships. While on the tour, the Honourable Minister explored the possibilities of adapting the technology in multiple use cases including agriculture, healthcare and logistics in Nigeria. Both parties discussed potential cooperation to support the ongoing repositioning of NIPOST and the establishment of the Nigeria Startup House.
• Following this meeting, the Honourable Minister made a quick stop at the Federal Government property being converted to become the Nigeria Startup House, located in the Presidio Heights neighbourhood of San Francisco.