Nigeria risks losing a significant share of the economic benefits of artificial intelligence to foreign technology companies unless it invests more aggressively in homegrown AI solutions, computing infrastructure and local expertise, stakeholders have warned.
They said dependence on AI systems developed abroad could shift jobs, technical expertise and commercial returns outside the country, while limiting Nigeria’s influence over how the technologies are designed and deployed to address local problems.
Speaking during a panel session titled “AI in Nigeria: What Is Deployed and What Is in the Press Release,” at the UK Meet Fellowship Nigeria, in Abuja, on Monday, stakeholders argued that the country must move beyond adopting foreign AI products to building systems that reflect local needs, use relevant data and create economic value within Nigeria.
Alex Tsado, who works in AI infrastructure and technology development, said many AI tools used in Nigeria and other African countries are developed in markets such as the United States, where developers may have limited understanding of the challenges facing their intended users.
According to him, this disconnect can produce systems that fail to reflect local realities, potentially generating inaccurate results while allowing the economic benefits of their development to accrue elsewhere.
“The biggest thing is one thing I care about, I call it homegrown AI. Homegrown AI is extremely important. It is about empowering our own people to build our own AI solutions,” Tsado said.
He added that local development would enable Nigerian innovators to identify the problems they want to solve, work with relevant domestic data and retain more of the jobs created by the industry.
The concern comes as AI adoption expands across sectors, raising questions about whether Nigeria can capture sufficient value from the technology or become primarily a market for products developed elsewhere.
For Tsado, the challenge extends beyond encouraging startups to build AI products. It also requires investment in the computing infrastructure that makes development possible, particularly access to graphics processing units (GPUs), which accelerate many AI workloads.
He said the cost of accessing high-performance computing resources could constrain local developers, even where government policies encourage domestic AI innovation.
Incubators and accelerators could help address some of these barriers by providing shared legal and regulatory support to startups that cannot afford to maintain multidisciplinary teams, he added.
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Local infrastructure remains critical
Nigeria’s ability to develop homegrown AI will also depend on access to reliable computing infrastructure and data centres capable of supporting AI workloads.
Tsado said local developers need access to the computing resources required to build and operate AI systems, while businesses and government institutions must be willing to consider suitable infrastructure within the country.
Although data centres are being developed locally, he noted that many organisations continue to rely on infrastructure located in Europe, the Middle East and the United States.
The presence of domestic data centres does not automatically mean that Nigerian data is being stored or processed locally, making it necessary to establish where individual systems operate and which infrastructure they use.
Organisations considering local facilities must also assess reliability, security and performance before moving critical workloads, particularly in sectors such as banking and financial technology.
Tsado said his company, Udu Technologies, had operated AI GPUs from a data centre in Lekki for approximately 18 months without experiencing a shutdown during that period.
He argued that such experiences could help demonstrate the capabilities of Nigerian infrastructure, although businesses would still require independently verifiable evidence when assessing facilities for critical operations.
Greater use of local infrastructure could support domestic technology development, but investment must extend beyond buildings and servers to include reliable power, computing capacity and skilled personnel.
Nigeria does not need to wait for massive datasets
Beyond infrastructure, stakeholders said Nigeria should make better use of existing data rather than postpone AI development until it has built the extensive datasets and computing capacity available in more established technology markets.
Tsado argued that government institutions, banks, hospitals and businesses already hold information that could support the development of specialised AI applications, subject to appropriate privacy, confidentiality and data protection safeguards.
He said smaller AI systems designed for specific tasks could provide a more practical starting point for local developers than attempting to replicate large, general-purpose models built by global technology companies.
“We should already start where we are and start moving forward,” he said, arguing that targeted AI applications could address particular local problems with more modest computing resources.
He cited a controlled pilot in a village in Kaduna State, where a small GPU was deployed in a clinic to explore whether an AI system could operate offline and respond to local needs.
The pilot was intended to assess feasibility rather than provide a fully deployed public service, highlighting how local experimentation could help establish what works in Nigeria’s operating environment.
However, access to data alone will not guarantee successful AI development. The quality of datasets, their relevance to local populations and the ability to use them lawfully will influence whether resulting systems provide reliable and useful services.
Governance and accountability could determine public trust
While local investment is essential, stakeholders cautioned that Nigerian AI developers must demonstrate that their products are accurate, safe and accountable rather than relying on the argument that locally developed systems deserve preferential treatment.
Simisola Akintoye, an associate professor of law at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom, said Africa had considerable opportunities in AI research, local expertise and infrastructure, but needed to be deliberate about how the technology was developed, adopted and governed.
She warned that dependence on foreign technologies could leave African countries with limited influence over how AI systems are designed and deployed, as well as who controls the data and captures the resulting economic benefits.
International collaboration remains important, she said, but should strengthen African capabilities rather than reinforce existing dependencies.
Akintoye, who said she had worked on Nigeria’s national AI strategy as the leader of its law and policy working group, stressed that accountability must be built into AI systems from the outset.
Where an AI application provides incorrect information, she said, responsibility must be traceable to the institutions and organisations involved in developing, deploying and maintaining it.
For AI-powered public services, this includes government agencies responsible for the underlying information, technology providers responsible for the system and organisations tasked with keeping official records accurate and current.
She also urged journalists to demand evidence when developers claim that their products are accurate, inclusive or trustworthy.
Such evidence should include details of accuracy testing, the methodology used, who conducted the evaluation, the treatment of users’ personal information and the availability of mechanisms for reporting errors.
The distinction is particularly important as AI applications are increasingly marketed through user numbers and conversation volumes that may not demonstrate whether the technology has solved a problem.
Tsado said reported usage figures should be accompanied by evidence showing how they were calculated, whether users received accurate answers and whether the services delivered measurable benefits.
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Foreign platforms must face the same scrutiny
Tsado also urged journalists to apply consistent standards when assessing AI products developed locally and those supplied by foreign technology companies.
He argued that scrutinising Nigerian startups without asking comparable questions about international platforms could disadvantage domestic innovators and leave foreign products better positioned to capture the market.
However, he said local developers should also recognise that responsible AI development requires continuous improvement, including clear plans for addressing technical, legal and operational weaknesses.
For Nigeria, the broader challenge is to build an environment in which local AI businesses can access computing resources, develop relevant products, attract investment and demonstrate their value to customers.
Without these capabilities, increased AI adoption may not translate into a corresponding expansion of domestic expertise, employment or technology ownership.
The stakeholders’ argument is therefore not only simply that Nigeria should use more locally developed AI. It is that the country needs to build the infrastructure, skills, governance systems and commercial capacity required to participate meaningfully in the development of the technology.
As AI becomes more embedded in public services and private businesses, the extent to which Nigeria can develop competitive local solutions could influence how much of the technology’s economic value remains within the country.
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Royal Ibeh is a senior journalist with years of experience reporting on Nigeria’s technology and health sectors. She currently covers the Technology and Health beats for BusinessDay newspaper, where she writes in-depth stories on digital innovation, telecom infrastructure, healthcare systems, and public health policies.
