Nigeria risks staying overly reliant on foreign artificial intelligence unless it makes a deliberate push to build its own capabilities. A new report warns that while the country is among the quickest in Africa to adopt AI tools, it still lacks the local infrastructure, research strength and skilled workforce needed to truly control and benefit from the technology.
Titled “Adoption of Artificial Intelligence in Nigeria: A Macro and Micro Economic Review,” the study was written by Debola Ibiyode of the AI Empowerment Foundation and CarbonAI, and carried out by OLGNova in partnership with AI in Action Now. It notes that Nigeria’s heavy use of overseas AI models, cloud services and platforms could hurt its digital independence over time. The report points out that even though Nigerians produce huge amounts of data through these tools, most of the economic gains flow back to foreign companies that own the systems.
More than 70 percent of Nigerians have already used generative AI tools, and 93 percent of organisations surveyed have started adopting the technology, with nearly a third using it in core operations. Local researchers have also produced over 11,600 AI-related academic papers, with the University of Ibadan leading the way. The technology is already showing results in several sectors. In healthcare, AI is helping analyse scans and support mental health services. In farming, advisory platforms have lifted crop yields by 20 to 30 percent while cutting costs. Traffic management pilots in Lagos and Abuja have reduced peak-hour delays by around 20 percent, and the Federal Civil Service has rolled out its own Service Wise GPT tool.
Despite these advances, the report highlights a major gap. Nigeria is contributing very little to the creation of core AI models or local data sets, leaving it exposed to policy changes or service issues from abroad. It estimates that automation could replace about nine million routine jobs by 2030, mainly in banking, administration and clerical work. At the same time, strong investment in skills could create around 11 million new technology-related roles.
To reduce this dependence, the report calls for faster spending on local computing power, datasets in Nigerian languages, innovation centres and easier financing for tech projects. It also urges universities to focus on teaching students how to create AI systems rather than only how to use them, arguing that the country’s future competitiveness will depend on its ability to develop and export its own solutions.
