By Sonny Iroche, AI Evangelist
Introduction
In the rapidly evolving digital era, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force reshaping economies, societies, and governance structures worldwide. For Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and largest economy, the strategic development of sovereign AI infrastructure is not merely a technological ambition but a national imperative. This article delves into the critical need for Nigeria’s public and private sectors to collaboratively develop indigenous AI capabilities across key sectors, drawing lessons from global counterparts who have embarked on similar journeys.
Understanding Sovereign AI
Sovereign AI refers to a nation’s autonomous capability to develop, deploy, and manage AI technologies using its own data, infrastructure, and workforce. This approach ensures that AI systems align with national values, legal frameworks, and strategic interests, mitigating dependencies on foreign entities and safeguarding against external vulnerabilities.
The Nigerian Context: Opportunities and Challenges
Nigeria stands at a crossroads where the integration of AI can address longstanding challenges and unlock new opportunities:
• Education: Personalized learning platforms powered by AI can bridge educational disparities, offering tailored content to diverse learning needs. The Federal Ministry of Education and their sub national counterparts should start to develop appropriate AI curriculums for primary, second and tertiary institutions in the country. This should be done in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy. While the 36 states of the Federation, should be encouraged to establish Ministries of Information Technology
• Finance: AI-driven analytics can enhance financial inclusion by assessing creditworthiness and risk management beyond traditional metrics, fostering access to credit for underserved populations. The Central Bank, the 24 Commercial banks and the development banks should be encouraged to commence AI Readiness Methodology, prior to investing and adopting AI
• Energy: Predictive maintenance and smart grid management through AI can optimize energy distribution and reduce outages. AI powered smart meters, grids, substations and monitoring, will go a long way in reducing the frequency of grid systems collapse and enhance preemptive maintenance.
• Agriculture: AI can revolutionize farming practices through precision agriculture, pest prediction, and supply chain optimization. Climate change monitoring, genetically modified seedlings to increase yields and pest resistant species.
• Security: Enhanced surveillance and predictive policing can bolster national security efforts and reduce to the barest minimum, the incidences of terrorists and violent attacks and other criminal activities, such as kidnappings across the country. AI facial and voice recognition systems can be used to monitor suspected criminals across the country and monitor border crossings and movements.
• Climate Change: AI models can predict environmental changes, flooding, aiding in disaster preparedness and resource management. And can give accurate weather forecasts for aviation, farming and other environmental impacts
• Population Census: It appears to be a problem for statisticians to give an accurate estimate of the country’s population, since the last census in the country was decades ago. The country’s population ranges from 200-300 million, depending on which institution one is relying on the figures.
AI can streamline data collection and analysis, ensuring accurate demographic insights, with a minimal margin of error.
• Anti-Corruption: Pattern recognition algorithms can detect anomalies in financial transactions, across all public and private sector transactions and institutions, aiding in the fight against corruption. The public and private sector institutions prone to corruption can be easily monitored with AI powered sensors, drones and other hidden AI gadgets to send messages to remote monitoring centers across the country. Banking transactions of both public and private sector employees and their families can be easily monitored using AI devices.
• Infrastructure and Housing: AI can assist in urban planning, ensuring efficient allocation of resources and sustainable development, through the use of AI engineers, architecture, quantity surveying and digital twins. The housing needs can be easily juxtaposed against the housing stock, and planning.
The exploration of the adoption of AI in national planning and development will not be easy, considering the dearth of infrastructure required to put it in place, but we must begin to envision and put long term development plans in place in order to join the rest of the world in massive technological development towards the fourth Industrial Revolution.
I am not unmindful that challenges persist, including inadequate digital infrastructure, limited skilled workforce, data, data privacy concerns, and the need for robust regulatory frameworks, to ensure the ethical and responsible use of AI in Nigeria and the rest of the continent.
Global Perspectives: Lessons from Other Nations
Several countries have recognized the strategic importance of sovereign AI and have initiated comprehensive programs:
• Japan: Collaborating with NVIDIA and SoftBank, Japan is investing over $740 million to build AI infrastructure, aiming to transform industries like automotive and healthcare .
• China: Despite facing challenges like underutilized data centers, China continues to invest heavily in AI, with Alibaba committing $48.3 billion to AI infrastructure, emphasizing rapid deployment and integration .
• Thailand: Through partnerships with NVIDIA, Thailand is developing its own large language models like OpenThaiGPT, aiming to drive economic growth and digital transformation .
• Vietnam: Vietnam focuses on building AI capabilities with an emphasis on data sovereignty, fostering collaborations between government and private sectors to bolster AI adoption .
• Canada: The Canadian government has launched a $2 billion Sovereign AI Compute Strategy to enhance domestic AI capabilities, ensuring access to cutting-edge computing infrastructure for researchers and businesses .
• Denmark: Denmark unveiled its largest supercomputer, Gefion, powered by NVIDIA’s DGX SuperPOD, to accelerate research and provide new opportunities in academia and industry .
• Indonesia: Indonesia’s BDx Data Centers introduced the country’s first sovereign AI data center, built with NVIDIA’s accelerated computing, aiming to position Indonesia as a leading AI hub in Southeast Asia.
•South Africa: The recent announcement at the Global AI Summit on Africa in Kigali, Rwanda, by Cassava Technologies’ Chairman, Strive Masiyiwa of the deal with Nvidia for the establishment of AI Factories across Africa, starting with South Africa, is a welcome development for the African continent and a wake up call for other countries on the continent, like Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Kenya, Côte D’Ivore, and others, to step up on their Sovereign AI strategies in order to bridge the gap between Africa and the developed AI countries of the global north.
Strategic Recommendations for Nigeria
To harness the full potential of AI, Nigeria should consider the following strategic actions:
1. Infrastructure Development: Invest in high-performance computing facilities and functional data centers to support AI research and deployment.
2. Policy and Regulatory Frameworks: Establish clear policies that promote ethical and responsible AI use, data privacy, and security.
3. Capacity Building: Develop educational programs and partnerships to cultivate a skilled AI workforce. Companies like GenAI Learning Concepts Ltd, in Nigeria are already leading the AI awareness to both corporate and educational institutions
4. Public-Private Partnerships: Encourage collaborations between government, academia, and industry to drive innovation.
5. Data Governance: Implement robust data management practices to ensure data quality and accessibility while respecting privacy concerns.
6. Sector-Specific Initiatives: Tailor AI applications to address specific challenges in sectors like agriculture, healthcare, security and education.
Conclusion
It is rather unfortunate that African countries did not fair well in the recent AI Readiness Index recently published by the IMF. The African Union, a group of the 54 African countries, must call an emergency session to discuss the readiness and adoption of this phenomenon that is upon our world and changing the way the world will operate going forward. My mantra “AI or Die”, remains relevant to individuals, corporations and countries.
The development of sovereign AI infrastructure is not just a technological endeavor but a strategic necessity for Nigeria. By learning from global examples and tailoring strategies to its unique context, Nigeria should aspire to position itself as the leading African country in AI innovation, driving economic growth, enhancing governance, and improving the quality of life for its citizens. The time to act is now, and it requires a concerted effort from all stakeholders to realize this vision.
References
1. National AI Strategy – NCAIR – NITDA. (2024). Retrieved from
2. NVIDIA to Help Elevate Japan’s Sovereign AI Efforts Through Generative AI Infrastructure Build-Out. (2024). Retrieved from
3. China’s AI ambitions remain undeterred, exemplified by Alibaba’s staggering 380 billion yuan AI infrastructure investment. (2024). Retrieved from
4. Thailand taps Nvidia to build its sovereign AI. (2024). Retrieved from
5. FPT Commits To Promoting Sovereign AI In Vietnam. (2024). Retrieved from
6. AI Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program. (2025). Retrieved from
7. Denmark Launches Leading Sovereign AI Supercomputer to Solve Scientific Challenges With Social Impact. (2024). Retrieved from
8. BDx Data Centers Introduces Indonesia’s First Sovereign AI Data Center Built With NVIDIA Accelerated Computing. (2024).
NB: Sonny Iroche holds a post graduate degree in Artificial Intelligence from the Saïd Business School of the University of Oxford, UK and a Senior Academic Fellow at the African Studies Centre 2022-2023. He is a technology analyst and writer specializing in artificial intelligence and digital transformation.
Sonny Iroche provides insights into how nations can leverage technology for sustainable growth.
Note: This article aims at informing policymakers, industry stakeholders, and the general public about the strategic importance of developing sovereign AI infrastructure in Nigeria.
