Nigeria has launched its first National Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence, marking a milestone in efforts to strengthen local AI research, develop skills and position the country as an active participant in the global artificial intelligence ecosystem.
The centre was unveiled at the University of Jos during the institution’s 50th convocation ceremony by Bosun Tijani, minister of communications, innovation and digital economy. It will operate as a national hub for advanced AI research, skills development, innovation and policy engagement, with support from the federal government through the ministry.
Tijani said the initiative reflects Nigeria’s determination not to remain a passive consumer of AI technologies or a rule taker in emerging global AI governance frameworks. With a population exceeding 240 million and growing by about five million people each year, he said Nigeria must play a meaningful role in how AI systems are designed, governed and deployed.
A central focus of the new centre will be inclusive research and data representation, aimed at ensuring AI systems better reflect Nigeria’s languages, cultures, social realities and economic structures. Tijani said universities must lead efforts to develop locally relevant datasets and contextual intelligence rather than relying solely on models trained on foreign data.
Challenging the idea that global leadership in AI is driven only by access to computing power, Tijani pointed to decades of sustained academic investment in machine learning and related fields in countries such as France and the United States. He said Nigerian universities must similarly commit to foundational research to unlock the economic and social benefits of AI.
“AI is built on numbers, and Nigeria has the numbers. We are too big a country not to participate meaningfully in artificial intelligence,” Tijani said, noting projections that Nigeria’s population could approach 500 million within two decades.
The University of Jos was selected to host the centre as part of a broader strategy to position Nigerian universities as engines of innovation and intellectual leadership from the global South. Tijani, an alumnus of the institution, said universities must move beyond observing Nigeria’s digital future to actively shaping it.
The National AI Centre of Excellence is expected to play a key role in talent development, research collaboration and policy advisory work as Nigeria advances its digital economy agenda in 2026 and beyond, amid intensifying global competition over the future direction of artificial intelligence.
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