Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy Dr. Bosun Tijani said the government is launching a further $1.5 million initiative to support the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in the country.
The Minister made this known in an interview with Arise TV on Wednesday regarding the outcome of participation in the just-concluded United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
Tijani said the foundation, which will be launched on October 7 in Abuja, is a global foundation that works to ensure that all people have the information, rights and power to influence decisions that affect their lives. This project was supported by Luminate, a company that supports the project.
This comes weeks after the ministry launched a 100 million naira AI fund in collaboration with Google, which it said was too meager to drive the AI revolution. It was criticized by the community.
Pooling resources for AI
Tijani noted that criticism of the previously launched 100 million Naira AI Fund was due to misunderstandings, but added that people should be aware of the additional support and broader efforts the government is making to secure more resources. He said they were not aware of the efforts being made and focused on superficial numbers.
“Our strategy for AI is not to limit AI to local resources, but to pool resources together. On October 7th in Abuja, we will launch an additional $1.5 million in support from Luminate. “I do,” he declared.
The minister added that another initiative the ministry is working on is the National Artificial Intelligence Trust in collaboration with the AI Collaborative, which focuses on the use of local languages in AI development.
“The Trust will be the body that ensures AI development in Nigeria is ethical, safe and sustainable, and will work with government to drive growth.
“By building language models at scale and digitizing the data, we can monetize these efforts, with proceeds going back into the trust to support further AI development,” he said. Ta.
Tackling grassroots issues with technology
When asked about the balance between working on high-level technology and addressing grassroots challenges, Tijani said that large-scale projects may not be immediately praised or easily understood by everyone. I admitted that I have sex.
However, he emphasized the long-term benefits of these efforts, particularly in areas such as infrastructure development. “The role of technology in society is to enable progress, and that won’t happen overnight,” he said, highlighting the government’s ongoing infrastructure projects. 90,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables across Nigeria. Tijani said the project took 18 months to secure $2 billion in funding and another two to three years for full construction, but it remains critical to the country’s future.
“I don’t expect it to get applause right away because it takes time. But you can’t ignore such projects just because you have poverty. In the short to medium term, projects like this It will alleviate a lot of problems,” he said.
Mr. Tijani also said that the government’s 3 Million Technical Talent (3MT) initiative is already yielding tangible benefits, providing employment opportunities for many Nigerians, especially those trained under the programme. He pointed out that he was doing so. Additionally, the government’s 774 project aims to connect local government offices to improve at the grassroots level. level of service provision. What you need to know
At the end of the National AI Workshop held by the Ministry in April this year, the Minister announced the launch of the AI Collective, a community of practice that will work together to accelerate the nation’s collective prosperity through a comprehensive AI ecosystem. did.
Luminate then announced plans to provide $1.5 million over the next three years to support the work of the three organizations that manage the AI Collective: Data Science Nigeria, Lagos Business School, and Center for Journalism, Innovation and Development I did. This will enable the three organizations to bring together expertise from civil society, academia, technology and other sectors to address governance, research and innovation. The AI Collective is housed within the National Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR). Latest news and market information.
