FG Seeks Ownership of AI Systems, Prioritises Data Sovereignty – NITDA
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FG Seeks Ownership of AI Systems, Prioritises Data Sovereignty – NITDA
By Alabidun Shuaib AbdulRahman
The Federal Government has said it is intensifying efforts to build a responsible and sovereign artificial intelligence ecosystem that will enable Nigeria to own and develop its AI systems.
The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, stated this on Thursday in a virtual address at the InnovateAI Conference held in Lagos.
Inuwa, who joined the conference virtually, said Nigeria must move beyond being a passive consumer of foreign technologies and begin to architect and deploy indigenous AI systems aligned with national values and development priorities.
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According to him, the country’s National AI Strategy is designed to reposition Nigeria from an end user of imported AI tools to a builder of homegrown solutions that can drive economic growth and improve governance.
“Our goal is not just to use AI, but to architect and build our own AI systems in Nigeria,” he said. “We must take deliberate steps to own the infrastructure and the processes that power these technologies.”
The conference brought together policymakers, tech entrepreneurs, innovators and industry stakeholders to explore how artificial intelligence can accelerate Nigeria’s digital economy and support national development.
The NITDA boss explained that Nigeria’s AI vision goes beyond innovation and experimentation to include governance, policy evolution, infrastructure and data protection.
He stressed that responsible AI development requires flexible and adaptive regulations.
“Responsible AI is never a finished job; it is an iterative journey. As technology evolves, our policies must also evolve. We must avoid rigid laws and instead adopt living policies that can adapt over time,” he said.
Inuwa identified the proposed Digital Economy and E-Governance Bill as a key policy instrument expected to provide a framework for refining AI regulations and strengthening oversight mechanisms.
He also raised concerns over the limited African representation in global AI datasets, warning that such imbalance often results in biases against local languages, cultures and demographics.
According to him, addressing such bias requires more than surface-level adjustments.
“If a model shows bias against a local dialect or demographic, we cannot simply patch it. We must invest in infrastructure that allows us to retrain these systems using inclusive and representative local datasets,” he said.
Inuwa noted that building national AI infrastructure is essential to safeguarding Nigeria’s data sovereignty and reducing overdependence on foreign platforms.
He further called for strategic collaborations with global technology companies and hyperscalers to establish AI infrastructure in Nigeria, while ensuring alignment with local context and national priorities.
“The world is interconnected, and we must collaborate. However, such partnerships must recognise our local realities and support us in building systems that reflect our unique needs,” he added.
The NITDA DG emphasised the need for a comprehensive AI lifecycle approach, covering responsible data collection, governance, deployment and continuous monitoring.
He warned that without a clear understanding of how AI models are trained, how decisions are made and how systems are retrained, it would be difficult to guarantee transparency and trust.
Inuwa reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to promoting responsible AI and said it was engaging stakeholders across the technology ecosystem to co-design guardrails that will guide Nigeria’s AI development.
He described platforms such as the InnovateAI Conference as critical to fostering dialogue and shaping the country’s artificial intelligence future.
