The Digital Opportunity of Nigeria report outlines how Google’s products and infrastructure are driving digital transformation and contributing to economic growth across the country.

With Nigeria experiencing rapid digital development, the report highlights the potential for further growth.

According to the study, every $1 invested in digital technology in Nigeria generates over $8 in economic value.

This emphasises the critical role of digital technology, including connectivity, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence (AI), in shaping Nigeria’s economic future.

Key Findings from the Report:

• Every $1 invested in digital technology in Nigeria contributes $8 to the country’s economy, illustrating the high return on investment in the sector.
• In 2023, Google’s products and services—including Search, Ads, YouTube, and Cloud—contributed an estimated $1.8 billion in economic activity across Nigeria. This has significantly boosted the productivity of Nigerian businesses, creators, and workers.
• Google’s digital skills programs, including Digital Skills for Africa and the Career Certificates Program, have helped millions of Nigerians, with over 1.5 million young adults learning new digital skills in 2023 alone.
• The report estimates that AI could increase Nigeria’s economy by an additional $15 billion by 2030, with Google’s commitment to responsible AI development set to play a pivotal role.

The report also provides strategic recommendations for policymakers, advocating for increased cloud-first policies and enhanced digital infrastructure to maximise AI’s potential in Nigeria. Additionally, it highlights the need for stronger STEM education and AI fluency to prepare Nigeria’s workforce for the future.

Commenting on the report, Olumide Balogun, director, West Africa at Google, stated:
“We’re thrilled to see the positive impact that digital technology is having on Nigeria’s economy. This report underscores the importance of continued investment in digital skills and infrastructure to unlock the full potential of Nigeria’s vibrant digital economy.”

Google’s mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Through products and platforms like Search, Maps, Gmail, Android, Google Play, Google Cloud, Chrome, and YouTube, Google plays a meaningful role in the daily lives of billions of people worldwide.

Meanwhile, Public First is a global policy and strategy consultancy, specialising in economic modelling and opinion research. We work with international companies, governments, institutions and foundations to provide data-rich insights that tackle major strategic challenges.

According to Amy Price, director & head of Technology Policy at Public First;
“Nigeria is a digital front-runner in Africa, and tech investment will be a powerful catalyst for further growth and development across the country. This is particularly true when it comes to connectivity, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.”

This AI-powered experience is available in English.

With new breakthroughs in generative AI, Google is reimagining what a search engine can do and is bringing these powerful new capabilities to Search in a bold and responsible way.

This powerful new technology can unlock entirely new types of questions that Search could not previously answer, and transforms the way information is organized in Search to help people sort through and make sense of what’s out there.

Improving Search with generative AI 

With SGE’s generative AI capabilities in Search, people will see an AI-powered overview of key information to consider, with links to dig deeper.

For anyone who has ever been overwhelmed by the amount of information online, this will help find answers more quickly.

For instance, with a question like “Does Honey ever Spoil?” Normally, you might break this question down into smaller ones, sort through the vast amount of information available, and then start to piece things together yourself. With generative AI, Search can do some of that heavy lifting.

SGE first delivers an overview, and beneath this, users will see suggested next steps where they can simply tap a query like “What is the oldest honey ever eaten?”, or type in a specific follow-up question.

This conversational experience enables people to intuitively learn more about the topic they’re exploring.

Context will be carried over from question to question, to help people more naturally continue their exploration.

Featuring a wide range of voices and sources 

Hearing insights from others is always useful when making decisions, so Google has designed these new experiences to highlight and drive attention to content on the web, making it easy for people to dive deeper on the topic they’re learning about.

As generative AI makes its way into Search, Google is committed to continue sending valuable traffic to sites across the web.

With SGE, Google is showing more links, and links to a wider range of sources on the results page, creating new opportunities for content to be discovered.

Ads are a vital piece of how the web works, and help people find relevant products and services. In this new generative experience, Search ads will continue to appear in dedicated ad slots throughout the page. Google will continue to uphold its commitment to ads transparency and making sure ads are distinguishable from organic search results.

When Search ads do appear, they will continue to feature their industry-leading clear and transparent ad labels with the “Sponsored” label in bold black text.

Taking a responsible approach 

Google is taking a responsible and deliberate approach to bringing new generative AI capabilities to Search.

The company has trained the models used in SGE to uphold Search’s high bar for quality, which will continue to improve over time.

These hallmark systems have been fine-tuned for decades, but will also have additional guardrails, like limiting the types of queries where generative AI capabilities will appear.

Wambui Kinya, General Manager for Search in Africa, said,

“With new generative AI capabilities in Search, we’re now taking more of the work out of searching. We’re imagining a supercharged Search that does the heavy lifting for you so you’ll be able to understand a topic faster, uncover new viewpoints and insights, and get things done more easily. This Search Generative Experience is the first step we’re taking in this journey, and part of our vision to make Search radically more helpful. We’re excited to bring this to the SSA region, and look forward to receiving feedback and iterating on the experience alongside our users over the next few months.” 

Sign up in Search Labs and experiment it:

Google is bringing SGE as an experiment in Search Labs, available on Chrome desktop and the latest version of the Google App on Android and iOS.

Access via Chrome desktop is available today, and access through the Google app will be enabled over the coming week – people can opt in to try it out and share feedback directly with the teams working on it.

Simply tap the Labs icon in the Google app or Chrome desktop, and visit Google Labs to learn more.

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Google today held graduation events in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa to celebrate 5000 business owners who have completed its Hustle Academy training programme.

At the events, Google also announced a new speaker series in which successful African entrepreneurs share lessons and advice, furthering its commitment to helping entrepreneurs and small businesses thrive.

Launched in February this year, the Google Hustle Academy provides practical business training which helps business owners learn the soft skills that complement their hard talents, through peer-to-peer and mentor driven learning.

This year’s graduates were chosen from nearly 10 000 applications. The 5000 graduates come from 23 cohorts who attended five day virtual bootcamps where they learned how to define their business strategy, increase sales, and how to pitch for investor funding. The curriculum also included lessons on digital marketing and effective financial planning.

Each business also received one on one mentoring sessions, to address specific pain points in their businesses, and to get advice from a network of trained mentors and coaches.

“Our graduates are working hard to grow their businesses, and in addition to having an impact in these 5000 SMBs, this kind of practical training also has a ripple effect, helping many more people succeed, “ says Mojolaoluwa Aderemi-Makinde – Head of Brand & Reputation, SSA.

The “Google Hustle Academy Brings You…” the new talk-show style video series featuring renowned and respected entrepreneurs from across Africa, sharing practical advice and growth tips to inspire emerging entrepreneurs is meant to complement and expand the Hustle Academy training.

This speaker series will allow SMBs to get insight from business owners from an array of sectors, focusing on the issues, themes and subjects they face on a regular basis.

Says Aderemi-Makinde, “Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are the backbone of the global economy, and in Africa, they account for an estimated 80% of jobs. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, there are an estimated 44 million micro, small and medium enterprises, which function as important drivers of economic growth.

Google has demonstrated commitment to supporting businesses in Africa and initiatives like the Hustle Academy and the new speaker series help businesses take advantage of all the opportunities that the web offers and equip them with the tools to develop and grow.

Google has always maintained that its mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Through products and platforms like Search, Maps, Gmail, Android, Google Play, Chrome and YouTube, Google plays a meaningful role in the daily lives of billions of people and has become one of the most widely-known companies in the world. Google is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.

Here are some photographs from the event: