The Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy has announced that Nigeria has joined a new global partnership to leverage Artificial Intelligence to solve some of the most critical challenges in the developing world.
This partnership, which was launched at the first ever global AI Safety Summit in the UK, will see partners like the UK government, through its ‘AI for Development’ programme, Canada, the United States, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other partners in Africa fund safe and responsible AI projects for development around the world.
The $100 million partnership will initially focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, in a deliberate effort to ensure that this ground-breaking technology is available to all. The funding will support local expertise and technological capacity to support the efforts of the continent’s AI innovators as they build solutions for long-term development.
According to Dr. ‘Bosun Tijani, Honourable Minister for Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy, who led Nigeria’s delegation to the global AI Safety Summit in London, where the partnership was announced, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers an unprecedented opportunity to appropriate knowledge more quickly and seamlessly in addressing some of our pressing social and business challenges. Our duty as policymakers is to ensure that our nation can participate and mainstream value creation from AI”.
The Honourable Minister also added “As we embark on this journey to accelerate our investment in the use of AI for good, it is essential to collaborate with long-standing allies to deepen our capacity and knowledge. This is why the “AI for Development” programme of the UK government represents a significant step in our journey to harness AI for our collective prosperity”
This partnership, which is in line with the FMoCIDE’s Strategic Blueprint, will further support ongoing Federal Government initiatives like the recently launched National AI Research Scheme, to build Nigeria’s capacity in AI as part of our long term commitment to deepen the application of AI for economic prosperity.
The global collaboration, which spans the next 5 years, will, among other details, fund postgraduate training and fellowships in AI in African countries, support investment in building data models that ensure accurate representation of Africa, build responsible AI governance frameworks to manage the potential risks of using AI and provide overall support for Sub-Saharan countries to participate more effectively in the global discourse on how AI is used to support the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals.
