Nigeria Secures $3.5Mn Seed Fund For AI Strategy Projects-Minister

The Federal Government has secured $3.5 million seed fund for Artificial Intelligence (AI) strategy implementation from development and other interested partners.

The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, disclosed this on Friday at the closing ceremony of a four-day international workshop on National Artificial Intelligence and Strategy for Nigeria held in Abuja.

The minister expressed confidence that with a collective pool of resources by both local and foreign partners, the outlook for Nigeria to achieve development with the AI strategy remained bright, stressing that the country needs the strategy now to prepare the citizens ahead for a competitive future as AI will come to Nigeria same way it will come to other countries globally.

He listed some of the funding agencies as UNDP, UNESCO, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Luminate, Lagos Business School, Data Science Nigeria, NITDA, agencies under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, among other international and local partners.

The minister said: “After an exciting week of co-creation with over 120 Artificial Intelligence experts, we not only have an initial draft of our National AI Strategy, we also announced some significant developments and partnerships that will lead us towards accelerating the development of AI in Nigeria.

“Also, a partnership between 21st Century Technologies, and the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR) to accelerate the development of Artificial Intelligence projects of national interest.”

Dr. Tijani revealed that the Federal Government had advocated for the establishment of African Council for Artificial Intelligence (AI) in view of the urgent need to ensure that the deployment of Artificial Intelligence in Africa is shaped by uniform regulations and market prospects.

“We already have same markets and trade regulations within Africa and in some sub-region, it is important the future of AI in Africa follow same pattern for ease of transactions, shared experiences and mutual opportunities and benefits,” the minister added.

Dr. Tijani announced that the AI Collective for Growth initiative, led by NITDA and run by Lagos Business School, would receive the funding from partners for the next three years.

In the minister’s word ‘‘This is not just another workshop that ends today, your efforts in the last four days will continue to make a lasting impression for tomorrow and we will by action ensure AI takes lead in Nigeria.

‘‘We have been blessed with a partnership with Galaxy Backbone with a data centre already allocated to AI.  For the pilot of this program, we have seen 21st Century Investing $2m into it.

‘‘My experience over the past 7 to 8 months is about supporting visions, to be able to articulate and come up with solutions. Funding resources and manpower is not a problem for Nigeria.

“With president we have today, Nigeria can even fund some of these things because it is willing to invest in deep infrastructure.

‘’When we come together, there is nothing we cannot do.  We may not understand the significance of this event, but for me, the approach to AI is to overcome the power of fear and one that is followed with extreme resources.

“Certain nations that were expected to participate in it did not, but it heartwarming that we other collaboration with NITDA and other partners funding this initiative.”