Is Nigeria’s AI Ambition Backed by Governance and Infrastructure?
The 2026 Global Index on Responsible AI ranked Nigeria the best-performing African country, 38th globally with an overall score of 45.93. Reports on the index note that binding protections remain scarce across Global South countries. A report on the 2026 Africa AI Governance Index, covered by ThisDay on August 26, found the same gap across the continent between writing AI strategies and having the funding, institutions and trained staff to carry them out.
On September 30, the IMF named Nigeria among African countries, including South Africa, Botswana and Mauritius, with real potential to benefit from AI, but warned that weak electricity, poor internet access and a shortage of trained workers could stop that potential from becoming economic gains in sectors such as farming, healthcare, banking and education. Nigeria’s National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR) released its own report that week on its AI skills, data centre and governance programmes.
There are also security risks. Interpol’s African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026 found AI linked to 55% of reported cybercrime in Africa. On September 11, INEC Chairman Prof. Joash Ojo Amupitan met Google’s Global Lead for Civic Responsibility in Ottawa to discuss using AI responsibly in elections.
Local building is under way. Communications Minister Tijani introduced the African Languages Technology and Learning AI Systems (ATLAS) Network to build AI models for African languages, noting that Africa has nearly a third of the world’s languages but fewer than 2% are supported by AI. Officials say Nigeria is also building its own multilingual large language model and planning a National AI Trust. Globacom launched Glo Café 3.0 with an AI assistant, Gloria, that speaks six languages, and SBTS Group launched the Aegis360AI security and compliance platform.