A member of Scotland Innovation Centre for Data and Artificial Intelligence, Abel Aboh, has advised the Nigerian government on critical strategies to tap into the global Artificial Intelligence (AI) economy valued at $1.2 trillion.
Aboh who stated this while appearing on a Channels TV program, said the first thing is for decision-makers in the country to recognize that there is a $1.2 trillion opportunity out there, out of which Nigeria has the potential to attract about 30 to 40%.
He identified four key things the country needs to do to tap into this opportunity.
According to him, the first thing is for Nigeria to be in strategic alliances with Africa and other countries of the world.
He said the second thing is to start developing and growing its workforce through digital skills training. Abel added that this will also include harnessing talents by attracting diasporan Nigerian talents back to the country.
Other strategies
Highlighting the remaining two strategies to position the country for the AI economy, Aboh said:
- “The third thing we need to do is that we need to start shaping some key principles not just policies but procedures and standards. The standards are really important because for too long, people always adopt standards as being set somewhere in in EU or elsewhere. It doesn’t work because Nigeria is quite unique.
- “So, we have to be responsive. And I think the standards are really important because if we go over to the EU they’ve got standards as well shaping artificial intelligence because it’s the new frontier. And I think finally we’ve got to build our data management capability, but not just that, we also need to build our innovation capability as well.”
Focus areas
While noting that the current administration’s plans to train 50,000 people in AI is good but not enough, Aboh said the country should be focusing on key areas of tech to build people.
According to him, Nigeria should not just be playing the role of a powerhouse in Africa, but also a leader in the tech space.
- “I looked at the current minister’s mandate, which he put out, if you look at page 18, also, he just mentioned that he wants to train 50,000 people in AI. Now, that’s great, but that’s not enough. We need to start thinking about which areas we need to build. In my head, I’ve got 16 tech areas that can work in Nigeria. Agritech is one of them, EdTech is one of them, Fintech is one of them, Clean Tech is one of them and there is also Green Tech. There are quite a lot of tech areas we can focus on and these cut across the various sectors that we got currently,” he said.
Global AI moves
Aboh added that several countries of the world are now taking serious actions about their AI having realized the huge economic potential it has.
- “China at the moment is running really crazy with artificial intelligence. America is doing the same as well. Just you know, a couple of months ago, the United Kingdom opened an office for artificial intelligence, and they’ve written a cheque of 100 million pounds to a guy called Ian to help build their capability. And Google just put out a report a couple of months ago, that 400 billion pounds can be added to the UK GDP in the next seven years, because of artificial intelligence.
- “So, what we’re talking about is not just a fairy tale, we’re talking about real things. We’re talking about opportunity. We’re talking about unlocking prosperity for Nigerians and for the continent as well. And I would encourage everybody to take this quite seriously as well,” he said.
