Nigeria must transition from being a consumer of foreign artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to developing indigenous AI solutions if it is to achieve long-term economic growth, technological independence and global competitiveness, a new report has advised.
The report, titled Adoption of Artificial Intelligence in Nigeria: A Macro and Micro Economic Review, was authored by the Founder and Executive Director of the AI Empowerment Foundation and Founder/Chief Executive Officer of CarbonAI, Debola Ibiyode. The study was conducted by OLGNova in collaboration with AI in Action Now.
According to the report, although AI adoption is accelerating across Nigeria, the country risks remaining dependent on technologies developed abroad unless deliberate investments are made in local AI research, infrastructure and talent development.
The review observed that AI is already reshaping critical sectors of the economy, including healthcare, agriculture, logistics, governance and education.
“Flip open a phone in a bustling Lagos tech hub, step into a university hospital, or visit a farm in the Middle Belt, and it quickly becomes clear that Nigeria is not failing at AI; it is adopting AI faster than it is building the institutional, infrastructural, and human foundations needed to sustain and own that adoption,” Ibiyode stated.
The report revealed that more than 70 per cent of Nigerians have interacted with generative AI tools, while 93 per cent of organisations surveyed have begun deploying AI, with nearly one-third already using the technology in advanced business operations.
It also highlighted Nigeria’s growing contribution to AI research, noting that local scholars have produced more than 11,600 AI-related academic publications, with the University of Ibadan leading the country’s research output.
According to the report, AI is already improving public service delivery through initiatives such as the Federal Civil Service’s Service Wise GPT. It added that AI-powered traffic management pilot programmes in Lagos and Abuja have reduced peak-hour travel times by about 20 per cent.
In healthcare, AI-powered diagnostic platforms are assisting doctors in analysing radiological images, identifying birth asphyxia in newborns and supporting mental healthcare through AI chatbots, helping to address the country’s shortage of psychiatrists.
The report also noted that AI is boosting agricultural productivity through advisory platforms that increase crop yields by between 20 and 30 per cent while reducing production costs. It added that predictive maintenance and route optimisation technologies are helping to minimise food waste and improve efficiency across supply chains.
Despite these gains, the report identified Nigeria’s biggest challenge as the imbalance between AI adoption and AI creation.
It observed that while Nigerians increasingly depend on foreign-built AI models, cloud infrastructure and software platforms, the country contributes relatively little to the development of foundational AI models, indigenous datasets and domestic computing infrastructure.
The report warned that such dependence allows valuable Nigerian data to strengthen foreign-owned AI systems while exposing the country to risks associated with licensing changes, service disruptions and external control of critical digital infrastructure.
It further cautioned that AI could widen existing inequalities if proactive measures are not taken. According to the study, most leading AI models are trained primarily on English-language data, limiting their effectiveness in understanding indigenous Nigerian languages such as Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo.
The report projected that automation could displace about nine million routine jobs by 2030, particularly in banking, clerical services and public administration. However, it estimated that AI could also create about 11 million new technology-enabled jobs, provided the country invests heavily in digital skills development and workforce reskilling.
To secure what it described as “sovereign AI”, the report urged government, universities, technology firms and investors to accelerate investments in local AI infrastructure, indigenous language datasets, innovation hubs and affordable technology financing.
It also called on universities to focus on training students to develop AI models rather than simply use existing AI applications, while encouraging greater support for indigenous AI start-ups and developers.
The report concluded that Nigeria’s high level of AI adoption provides a strong platform for future growth but stressed that the country’s long-term economic value will depend on its ability to build, own and export home-grown AI technologies instead of remaining largely a consumer of foreign innovations.
(The Sun)
