Abstract

AI is powerful and has the potential to deliver many benefits to the Nigerian economy. As such, the government needs to play an important role in partnering with industry and the community to ensure its deployment is safe, fair, and produces positive outcomes. Given the early stage of AI development in Nigeria, we believe it’s important to make sure that policy makers have a clear and consistent understanding of the current state of AI in Nigeria-- the state of current laws and regulations as it applies to AI, current applications of AI, and the challenges AI presents on a policy level. We also present areas where the government, in collaboration with wider civil society and AI practitioners, can play a crucial role in advancing AI in Nigeria. We hope this paper can help in evolving the discussion to address policy ideas and implementation of AI in Nigeria.