Experts downplay fears of AI-driven job losses
By Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA — Nigeria loses about $850 million, equivalent to ₦1.13 trillion, annually through its reliance on cloud infrastructure provided by a handful of foreign companies, according to research commissioned by global technology philanthropy Luminate.
The Chief Executive Officer of Luminate, Melanie Hui, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja while delivering the keynote address at the Build 2026 Conference, convened by the Nigeria Artificial Intelligence (AI) Collective.
In her address, titled “Africa in the Global AI Order: Towards Equitable Ownership and Shared Prosperity,” Hui said the country’s dependence on foreign cloud infrastructure raised questions about digital ownership and the distribution of economic value.
“Nigeria, like countries across the world, relies heavily on cloud infrastructure provided by a handful of foreign companies. The research we commissioned estimates that this dependency costs Nigeria around $850 million each year,” she said.
Hui stressed that hosting digital infrastructure within a country’s borders did not necessarily translate into ownership or control.
“A country does not own its digital future when a data centre merely sits within its borders. The more important questions are who controls it, who can afford to use it, what powers it, whose data it processes and where the resulting economic value flows,” she said.
She also drew attention to the historical inequalities reflected in Africa’s digital infrastructure, noting that the fibre-optic cables carrying the continent’s internet traffic followed some routes associated with historic injustice.
“Infrastructure, indeed, encodes relationships of power. It determines who connects to whom, who controls the gates, who pays rent, and who extracts value,” she said.
According to Hui, Africans should not be confined to subordinate roles in the global AI economy.
“My African friends tell me they will not be confined to the role of consumer, supplier of raw data, source of critical minerals or provider of low-paid labour in somebody else’s AI economy,” she said.
On data governance, she warned against treating people and communities merely as sources of information from which technology companies could generate products and profits.
“People and communities must not be treated as reservoirs of data from which others fashion their products, profits and ideas,” she said.
Hui also rejected arguments that regulation necessarily slows technological progress, insisting that safeguards were essential to responsible innovation.
“Those of us who promote tech justice must not lend credence to some, in the tech industry, who would paint regulation as a brake on progress. I disagree. Safeguards are the allies of progress,” she said.
Citing examples of efforts to hold technology companies accountable, she referenced the Nigerian competition authority’s action against Meta over alleged data exploitation and discriminatory practices.
She also noted that app-based drivers in Nigeria had secured government recognition for what she described as Africa’s first e-hailing trade union.
Hui called for an AI economy rooted in African agency, capabilities and innovation, where prosperity would be measured not only by market size but also by the opportunities and freedoms available to people.
Experts Say AI Could Create More Jobs
At the conference, technology experts also sought to allay fears that artificial intelligence would lead to widespread job losses, arguing that the technology could create new employment opportunities and improve productivity.
Their comments came amid warnings by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank about AI’s potential impact on the global labour market.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva recently described AI as a “slow-moving tsunami” at the “Small AI: More and Better Jobs” event during the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok, Thailand.
She said about 40 per cent of jobs globally could be augmented, downgraded or eliminated by the technology.
World Bank Group President Ajay Banga, meanwhile, has emphasised the need to ensure that development translates into employment, arguing that AI should improve productivity and support job creation rather than simply replace workers.
However, the Chief Executive Officer of Data Science Nigeria, Dr Olubayi Adekanmbi, argued that the overall gains from AI could outweigh the losses.
“There is something we call net effect. Some wins and some losses. But by the time you weigh them together, you will realise that the net effect of AI is going to be much more. Because many jobs that never existed before, AI will make them possible,” he said.
Adekanmbi maintained that human judgement would remain important even as AI tools became increasingly integrated into professional work.
“AI can help in my diagnosis, but the final decision will still come from doctors. So, a doctor can reach out to more people faster because the doctor has used AI. It’s never taking the job of a doctor. That is why everybody must learn AI so that when you learn AI with your current job, you will not lose your job,” he said.
He urged workers to acquire AI skills and learn how to apply the technology within their existing professions.
Digital Skills Key to Job Creation
The Executive Director of the Policy Innovation Centre and host of the Nigeria AI Collective Secretariat, Dr Osasuyi Dirisu, said digital skills development would be critical to creating jobs for Nigeria’s young population.
“We have a very young demographic in Nigeria. In order to create jobs at scale, we need to leverage digital technology. We need to leverage digital jobs, and one of the ways to do that is to build digital skills,” she said.
Dirisu said young Nigerians needed to be prepared for emerging employment opportunities through training and continuous skills development.
She described the Nigeria AI Collective as “a community of practice that is working to build an ethical and inclusive future for AI development in Nigeria.”
Experts Address AI-Generated Election Falsehoods
The conference also examined concerns over the use of AI to spread misinformation, disinformation and deepfakes ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Dirisu said the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), a partner of the Collective, was working to address the threat through election-monitoring labs and media training.
Adekanmbi, however, said AI tools could also help Nigerians verify information and counter falsehoods.
“Somebody posts something, and you ask Grok, ‘Please confirm,’ Grok can immediately crawl the internet for you and confirm it,” he said.
He proposed extending such verification services to Nigerians without internet access through telephone-based systems.
“They can use maybe a mobile phone to call a number and say that ‘I heard something,’ and immediately they can get a response telling them that what you heard is not true. The technology for that already exists,” he said.
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