Nigeria Africa’s largest economy is rapidly transitioning into a knowledge-based economy with the prospects of adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), which is an enabler of growth, innovation, and increased productivity.
This was the focus of discussion at the 4th edition of Nigeria Information Technology Reporter’s Association (NITRA) ICT Growth Conference themed “Impact of AI on National Development: Prospects, Policies and Challenges in Nigeria” held in Lagos.
At the conference, key ICT media voices from broadcast, print and online platforms including; Hilary Damissah, editor and Chief Operating Officer at DigiVation Network TV, Justus Adejumo, ICT Editor at Daily Independent Newspapers, Peter Oluka, founder and Editor at Techeconomy lent their thoughts to the subject matter of AI along side other stakeholders in the sector including the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) and strategic partners as they leant their voices to the conversation.
Setting the tone for the conversation, Hilary Damissah, a one-time member of the Senate Committee Media Advisory Group on ICT and Cyber Security, brought his versatility to the discourse while moderating the panel session.
The DigiVation Editor stirred concerns about the natural anxiety people have, inclusive of Nigerians on the advent of any new disruptive technology like AI and sort to know the preparedness of the nation in terms of policy, security, and probable socio-economic effects of navigating the dangers of AI in a developing economy: the role of public and private stakeholders.
Hilary drawing from his vast public sector engagement, including as Production Team Lead to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Telecom Weekly TV/Radio programme and the National Information Technology Development Agency NITDA Impact respective television programmes on national stations raised crucial questions of the possibility of AI living up to it’s hype and it’s possibilities of eroding several human factors including the threat to jobs as part of the worry of Nigerians.
In response to that, Mr Oluwakayode Olatunji, the Chief Information Security Officer, Digital Encode, opined that while AI is evolving, Nigerians have to adopt its usage into daily activities and that AI will not take away human factor from the job market.
“It is not that primarily, AI will take your job. However, it’s just like a moving train. If you have your ticket with you and you don’t want to get on the train, it will leave you at that particular place, and you will become obsolete over time. AI is not there to actually take out the job. However, we also need to prepare ourselves spiritually, emotionally, and physically to ensure that we plug into the opportunities that it offers. It’s a wave, and that wave is continual.” he pointed out.
Given the strategic role of the media in terms of creating awareness, educating the people and guiding against several misconceptions associated with some of the emerging technologies like AI, Hilary Damissah sort to know the preparedness of the media to live up to the expectations and how the media intend to ensure important information dissemination and requisite knowledge based policy implementation.
To this, Justus Adejumo, a veteran technology reporter and IT editor, Daily Independent Newspapers, noted the need for media to be knowledgeable about subject matters in order to always disseminate the right information.
“We should have better education, that means as the societal gatekeepers, media professionals have to be deliberate in acquiring new trainings, build capacities and acquaint themselves more with global trends,” Adejumo reiterated.
Giving more emphasis, Justus Adejumo says;
“For me, one way to bridge the information gap occasioned by the advent of AI, especially as watchdogs of the society, is through better education.” In this context, ” I’m not talking about the conventional or traditional education of going to college or university and all that. Now, the AI we are talking about is something created by humans and not by robots or people from the space. That means those who are going to operate it and deploy these services of technology must also understand what they are doing.” he stated further.
Pointing out concerns of most developing countries like Nigeria and the risk of always quickly adapting holistically global trends that may not be suitable within specific social contest, the Moderator Hilary Damissah and Coordinator, Nigeria’s first official participation at CABSAT (Dubai World Trade Centre) 2016 tasked the Co-founder Hyperspace and NeuRal AI, Dr. Oluseyi Akindeinde of the level of readiness of Nigeria in the area of possessing the requisite skills and capacity to embrace artificial intelligence.
Responding, Dr. Oluseyi noted that, though Nigerians may not readily possess the skills at this point in time. However, it is a growing trend that doesn’t necessarily require a certification for its adoption, deployment, and use.
“AI is a general-purpose technology. It is a piece of technology that can be used across several industries, just like the internet. You need the skills, you need the knowledge, you need the understanding of the technology that you are going to be dealing with, so the skills required will be built over time as we cannot afford to wait and be left behind,” he expressed.
“When a new piece of technology comes to be, it brings about newer jobs that we don’t even know. AI will take some jobs away; especially manuals, but it will also create newer jobs that even people within this sector can delve into. So, we need to upskill our knowledge, not just for computer scientists and IT people but also for people in law, medicine, mass communication, education, and health, among others he added.
While acknowledging that AI is data driven and internet centric, Moderator Hilary sorts the views of Peter Oluka of Techeconomy and representive of the President of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), Mr Adesola Akinsanya, how organisations like NIRA intend to ensure the domestication of local content and consideration for our unique socio-cultural interest is factored in the narrative of the unfolding AI scenario in Nigeria.
To this posser, Peter emphasized the need for digitization in various sectors across the nation.
“AI is all about data. It is not garbage in or garbage out. The data you feed into the system is what it is going to use to give you feedback. The question is, how prepared are we with our data? If we do not have accurate data, deployment will cause us issues. So, having this data will serve our national interest for the national adoption of programs” he pointed out.
Highlighting the challenges that Nigeria’s energy sector is faced with such as inefficient distribution, energy theft, lack of energy access and affordability, Hilary possed the question of how Nigeria can harness the potentials of AI to solve the energy problems confronting the nation.
Oluwatoni Olugbenga, a top-tier IT and energy expert in his response, stated that Nigerians have to come to terms with the fact that energy is not cheap before dealing with the challenges.“
The first thing is that energy is not cheap, but the cost of energy itself is not the issue. First, we need to get it right in terms of regulation. How can we leverage AI? In terms of technology as well, we need the right corporate governance, we need to have appropriate data, and when we have this, we can leverage AI to improve what we have in the energy space”, he said.
Speaking further, Olutoni said Nigeria’s unique context, especially in the size of population and challenges, makes AI adoption an imperative for sustainable development, economic growth, and global competitiveness.
It has been estimated that the market for artificial intelligence in Nigeria will grow by 28.10% between 2024 and 2030.
