Nigeria is set to address its Artificial Intelligence (AI) knowledge gap by training 25,000 educators who will, in turn, teach 125,000 young people about this emerging technology. This initiative marks the beginning of efforts to bridge a knowledge gap that could otherwise hinder the country’s aspiration to become a key player in the AI landscape.
The training will be funded by a ₦2.8 billion grant from Google to Data Science Nigeria, supporting the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy’s ongoing AI-driven initiatives to upskill youths.
Alongside training educators, the grant will fund advanced technical training in data science and AI for 20,000 young Nigerians, preparing them for AI-driven careers. These individuals will be selected from the ministry’s ongoing 3 Million Technical Talents (3MTT) program.
With a median age of around 18, Nigeria is betting on its youth to tap into the AI wave that is expected to add $15 billion to its economy by 2030. Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, said, “AI is already here. It gives us a unique opportunity to reimagine how we do things, but it’s not going to be possible for us to do it if we don’t build a strong ecosystem locally.”
In its draft, National AI Strategy, Nigeria revealed plans to equip 70 percent of its young workforce (aged 16 – 35 years) with AI-related skills and knowledge to reduce unemployment by five percentage points. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the country’s unemployment rate stood at 5 percent in the third quarter of 2023, with only 7.7 percent of jobs coming from the formal sector.
The strategy document highlights that a highly skilled AI workforce is essential for any thriving ecosystem.
Building an AI-ready workforce requires a multi-tiered approach: educating future talent, training the current workforce, and attracting local and international expertise. Yet, financial constraints prevent most Nigerian universities from hiring professors with specialised AI knowledge, leading to a skills gap.
Despite having at least 262 universities (52 federal, 63 state-owned, and 147 private), these institutions struggle to keep pace with the evolving tech industry and provide outdated educational content.
A report by GSMA, ‘AI for Africa: Use cases delivering impact,’ highlighted that the scarcity of these educators is a major challenge in Nigeria and Kenya. “In Kenya and Nigeria, the scarcity of professors with robust AI expertise and qualifications appears to be a significant challenge.
Academic institutions typically lack the financial resources to recruit them, impacting the quality of courses offered… While universities offer AI-related courses, they often fail to keep pace with industry needs, and students have limited opportunities for practical learning and hands-on experiences,” it said.
Nigeria wants to address this gap by nurturing its AI talents from secondary schools, hoping that its university system will catch on soon. Tijani explained, “It is focused on young people in schools and teachers. It is our responsibility to ensure that the education we give to these young ones is the sort that will allow them to participate in the future of work that the world will have to offer them when they grow. We cannot do that if their teachers also don’t understand how these technologies can be used, which is why I also think it’s powerful.
