Nigirian National AI Strategy (NAIS) 2024 | Draft

August 2024

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Strategies and Action Plans

The National AI Strategy (NAIS) 2024 outlines Nigeria’s vision of becoming a global leader in Artificial Intelligence (AI) by leveraging the technology for socioeconomic growth, inclusion, and sustainable development. The strategy includes multiple pillars, objectives, and implementation measures designed to position Nigeria as a frontrunner in AI, particularly within Africa, through ethical, responsible, and inclusive innovation.

Vision and principles

Nigeria’s AI vision is centred around responsible, ethical, and inclusive innovation, aiming to foster sustainable development through collaborative efforts. The guiding principles are:

  • Responsible and ethical conduct: Ensuring that AI systems are developed with societal impacts in mind, upholding transparency, fairness, and respect for human rights.
  • Inclusivity: Ensuring that AI innovation benefits all stakeholders, including marginalised groups.
  • Sustainability: Using AI to address environmental and societal challenges.
  • Global leadership: Positioning Nigeria as a global leader in AI.
  • Collaboration: Fostering partnerships across government, academia, industry, and civil society.

Objectives

The strategy focuses on three broad objectives:

  1. Economic growth and competitiveness: Using AI to enhance productivity, foster new industries, and attract foreign investment.
  2. Social development and inclusion: Leveraging AI to improve access to essential services, address social challenges, and empower citizens.
  3. Technological advancement and leadership: Building AI expertise within Nigeria and establishing the country as a global player.

Pillars

The NAIS is structured around five key pillars:

  1. Building foundational AI infrastructure:
    • Objective: Establish affordable high-performance computing resources and foster local AI development.
    • Strategies: Deploy high-performance computing centres, invest in AI-specific hardware, and establish clean energy AI clusters.
  2. Building and sustaining a world-class AI ecosystem:
    • Objective: Create a robust AI ecosystem that promotes partnerships, talent development, and innovation.
    • Strategies: Develop a collaborative AI partnership platform, establish AI centres of excellence, and launch programs to attract global AI talent.
  3. Accelerating AI adoption and sector transformation:
    • Objective: Drive AI adoption across sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, and finance.
    • Strategies: Implement industry-specific AI roadmaps and showcase AI’s value through demonstration projects.
  4. Ensuring responsible and ethical AI development:
    • Objective: Develop frameworks that ensure AI systems are ethical, transparent, and aligned with societal values.
    • Strategies: Establish a National AI Ethics Commission and implement ethical principles for AI development.
  5. Developing a robust AI governance framework:
    • Objective: Create clear governance structures for AI to ensure transparency, accountability, and risk management.
    • Strategies: Develop national AI principles, establish a regulatory body, and create a risk management framework.

Implementation

The strategy includes a clear implementation roadmap with defined timelines, key performance indicators (KPIs), and responsible entities. A risk management framework has also been developed to mitigate challenges like job displacement, ethical concerns, and data security breaches. The strategy emphasises the importance of balancing innovation with regulation, ensuring that AI is implemented responsibly without causing harm to societal and economic structures.