The Minister for Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, recently announced strategic partnerships with tech giants like Cisco, 21st Century Technologies, Awarri, and DataDotOrg. This exciting development took place during a dinner marking the conclusion of a four-day National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (NAIS) Workshop in Abuja.
During the workshop themed “Developing the High-Level Strategy and Implementation Plan for a National Artificial Intelligence Strategy for Nigeria,” Mr. Tijani emphasized the importance of these partnerships in driving technological innovation and boosting Nigeria’s digital economy.
Highlighting the increasing global interest in AI technology, Mr. Tijani revealed that significant investments are being made in Nigeria, with over one Petabyte of storage already allocated to AI projects by Galaxy Backbone Limited. Additionally, the Pilot Compute Programme, supported by 21st Century Technologies, is set to enhance Nigeria’s computing power with a substantial investment in Graphics Processing Units (GPU).
The minister outlined several key projects and partnerships aimed at accelerating Nigeria’s growth in the field of AI. These include the relaunch of the National Centre for AI and Robotics (NCAIR), the development of a Nigerian multilingual large language model, and the establishment of Nigeria’s computing infrastructure pilot.
With support from global tech company Cisco, the NCAIR is focused on promoting research and development in emerging technologies to transform Nigeria’s digital economy. The Nigerian multilingual large language model project, in collaboration with Awarri, NITDA, and DataDotOrg, aims to build a robust AI model using high-quality Nigerian language data.
Furthermore, the computing infrastructure pilot, a joint effort between Galaxy Backbone Limited and 21st Century Technologies, will provide local researchers, startups, and government entities access to advanced computing resources for AI projects of national interest.
Mr. Tijani also introduced the AI Collective, a community of practice dedicated to leveraging AI for economic prosperity, innovation, and social development in Nigeria. The minister expressed gratitude to all stakeholders for their contributions to the workshop, which was supported by organizations like Luminate, Google, Meta, Microsoft, NITDA, NCAIR, NCC, UNESCO, UNDP, Galaxy Backbone Limited, and USPF.
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is revolutionizing industries by enabling computer systems to perform complex tasks traditionally done by humans. As Nigeria embraces cutting-edge technologies like AI, the potential for increased productivity and collective prosperity is immense.
In conclusion, the strategic partnerships and projects announced by Minister Bosun Tijani signal a significant step towards positioning Nigeria as a leading force in AI innovation and technology on the global stage. The future looks bright for Nigeria’s digital economy, thanks to these groundbreaking initiatives.
