| By: Francis Onyemachi
The adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Nigeria is growing rapidly from basic awareness and digital literacy to plans for innovation, economic growth and global competitiveness.
Beyond adoption and rising interest from organisations, businesses and government, the need for more robust ecosystem and technical talent to build, deploy and sustain advanced AI systems continue to rise with experts warning that Nigeria’s greatest challenge is no longer AI literacy but the shortage of highly skilled engineers, machine learning specialists, researchers and infrastructure needed to compete in the global AI economy.
The experts also highlighted the country’s ecosystem as a major challenge, pointing to the failure to establish AI learning organisations that can deploy and retain talents.
According to Google estimates, AI could contribute about $30 billion to Nigeria’s economy over the coming decade if adoption and talent development accelerate.
Debola Ibiyode, founder and CEO of CarbonAI, said Nigeria is in need of more technical AI expertise aside general literacy to tap full potentials of the technology.
According to her, Nigeria has talented AI professionals while the real shortage is in deep technical AI expertise.
“When people talk about an AI talent gap, they are referring to specialists such as machine learning engineers, data scientists, AI researchers, foundation model engineers, and AI infrastructure specialists. These are the people who build AI systems, not just use them,” Ibidoye said.
Ibiyode explained that developing this level of expertise requires strong foundations in mathematics, computer science, access to high-performance computing, quality research environments, and sustained investment.
In her words:
“Nigeria is still building these capabilities. At the same time, we also face challenges in retaining and effectively deploying the few talents we already have, as many highly skilled professionals relocate abroad or work remotely for international organisations.”
According to PwC, the global AI market is projected to contribute $15.7 trillion to the world economy by 2030 while the World Economic Forum estimates AI and automation to create 78 million net new jobs globally by 2030, even as they transform existing roles.
The CEO also identified the lack of organisational investment in critical AI areas as one of the biggest gaps, stating that earlier investment will create opportunities for higher value.
“The biggest long-term gap is therefore not just technical skills, but the absence of organisational investment in AI engineering, data engineering, AI governance, cybersecurity, and product development. Companies that invest in internal innovation will naturally create demand for higher-value AI talent and help develop Nigeria’s AI ecosystem.”
She lamented that Nigeria still lagged behind in AI demand compared to big AI economies.
Ibiyode explained that Nigerian employers often outsource AI implementation to foreign providers rather than channeling investment to local talents.
“Interestingly, most Nigerian employers are not yet demanding AI talent in the way mature AI economies do. In many organisations, businesses simply want AI solutions delivered to them rather than building internal AI capability.
“As a result, companies often outsource implementation to foreign providers instead of investing in internal engineering teams. Many organisations have IT departments focused on procuring and maintaining technology rather than engineering departments responsible for innovation,” she added.
Citing a just concluded research carried out by her team which is still pending to review, she concluded that AI adoption in Nigeria is broad but capability-constrained.
She disclosed that AI learning is not necessarily the solution but lack of technical depth required to build production-grade AI systems.
“Many programmes focus on surface-level skills such as prompt engineering and AI tool usage. While these are valuable, they are increasingly becoming the AI equivalent of basic computer literacy rather than specialist AI expertise.”
The bigger constraints, according to her, remain limited industry adoption, inadequate compute infrastructure, insufficient investment in research and development, and weak demand for advanced AI engineering talent.
“Without addressing these structural issues, certifications alone will not translate into meaningful employment or economic transformation.”
On her part, Dr Onyekachi Onwudike-Jumbo, AI director, Semantic AI & Knowledge Engineering expert, identified Nigeria’s ecosystem challenge as a major challenge.
According to her, thousands of Nigerians have completed AI courses over the last few years ranging from machine learning certification and Data science but fail to establish AI learning organisations that can deploy and retain talents.
“The issue isn’t simply producing talent. It is creating AI-ready organisations that can deploy and retain the talents.
“Most of Nigeria’s AI talents are working remotely for international organisations or even relocating abroad because global demand for AI expertise continues to outpace local investment,” she said
Onwudike-Jumbo also lamented that organisations and businesses in Nigeria are still experimenting with AI rather than embedding it into core business operational processes.
“Because of this, the demand for AI continues to grow more slowly than the supply of trained professionals.”
She emphasised the need to deepen conversation on how to create more opportunities for AI professionals to solve African problems.
Solutions
1. A Coordinated National AI Capability Strategy
For Ibiyode, Nigeria needs a coordinated national AI capability strategy.
According to her, the government should invest in national AI infrastructure, research funding, and policies that encourage AI innovation. She added that universities must modernise their curricula to teach practical AI engineering, machine learning, data engineering, AI governance, and responsible AI alongside strong computer science fundamentals.
2. Transit from Buying AI Products to Building Internal AI Capability
Ibiyode explained that the private sector has a critical role.
The CEO warned that businesses must move beyond simply buying AI products and begin building internal AI capability.
“That means investing in engineering teams, research partnerships with universities, graduate programmes, and continuous workforce development. AI capability is becoming a strategic national asset. Countries that invest in talent, infrastructure, governance, and innovation together will be the ones that lead the next wave of economic growth,”she said.
According to UNESCO, many African countries still face a shortage of advanced AI researchers and postgraduate training capacity, limiting their ability to build frontier AI technologies.
She urged Nigerian universities to make AI education a strategic priority rather than an optional addition to existing programmes to keep up with AI skills needed by employers.
3. Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Design
Onwudike-Jumbo explained that the success of AI relies heavily on knowledge structure, leadership, governance and organisational change.
“AI is as good as the knowledge structures behind it. If an organisation’s knowledge and data are fragmented, inconsistent or poorly governed, even the most sophisticated AI models will struggle to deliver meaningful outcomes. The biggest gap isn’t just technical but what I called translation skills which is the ability to understand business problems and translate them into AI solutions and guild organisations true transformation.”
Rachael Irabor, AI & Digital Transformation technical consultant, maintained that Nigeria does not lack AI talent, insisting that there are many globally competitive AI professionals in Nigeria doing remarkable work.
According Irabor, the bigger challenge is the ability of businesses and organisations in Nigeria to absorb and deploy the talent that already exists, adding that the number of companies meaningfully adopting AI and creating opportunities for AI professionals is not proportional to the growing number of people developing AI skills.
“Many Nigerian businesses are still at the early stages of AI adoption. Some organisations know they want to use AI, but they do not yet have a clear understanding of the business problems they want AI to solve, the infrastructure and data required, or the kind of AI professionals they need. This creates an imbalance. We have talented people looking for opportunities to apply their skills, but not enough organisations creating the projects and environments where those skills can be deployed and developed.”
The consultant reiterated that thousands of AI professionals cannot be created without an ecosystem where the skills can be applied.
She added that many talented Nigerians will complete courses and certifications but still struggle to secure roles if companies are not investing in AI projects, building AI teams, or creating opportunities for people to gain practical experience,
“This also creates another problem. Companies want experienced AI professionals, but where are emerging talents supposed to get that experience if businesses are not willing to give them opportunities to work on real-world AI projects.
“Until we close that gap and see more businesses investing in AI adoption and creating real opportunities, we will continue to have talented people who have developed AI skills but cannot find enough opportunities to deploy them.”
The experts believed that limited industry adoption, insufficient business investment, infrastructure challenges, and the gap between learning and practical experience are all connected.
Irabor argued that Nigeria is developing AI talent faster than it is developing the ecosystem needed to support that talent, deploy their skills, and create opportunities for them to grow.
