By Benson Daniel
Nigeria wants to build a stronger domestic artificial intelligence ecosystem as it pursues its ambition of becoming a $1tn economy, with the Federal Government calling for a shift from consuming foreign technology to creating solutions developed locally.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, said Nigeria could not achieve meaningful digital transformation by depending largely on technologies, infrastructure and intelligence developed outside the country.
He made the remarks at the opening of GITEX Nigeria 2026, where government officials, technology companies, investors and other industry stakeholders gathered to discuss the future of artificial intelligence and the digital economy.
Akume said the country must move beyond basic internet connectivity and focus on building indigenous innovation, digital infrastructure and what he described as digital sovereignty.
The argument is straightforward. Nigeria has a large population, a growing technology market and a young workforce, but much of the computing infrastructure and advanced technology supporting digital services is still controlled from outside the country.
The government now wants more of that value chain to be developed locally.
Akume said Nigeria should become a producer of technology, talent and AI systems rather than remaining a market for solutions created elsewhere.
That ambition puts skills development at the centre of the strategy.
The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency, Kashifu Abdullahi, said several government programmes were already aimed at expanding the country’s technical workforce and digital infrastructure.
He cited initiatives including Digital Literacy for All, the 3 Million Technical Talent programme and Project BRIDGE as part of efforts to increase access to digital skills and strengthen the infrastructure needed to support a technology driven economy.
The government is also working on policy and regulatory frameworks covering areas such as cloud infrastructure, local data hosting and responsible deployment of artificial intelligence.
For Nigeria, the issue goes beyond having more people who can use AI tools.
The bigger opportunity lies in developing engineers, programmers, researchers and entrepreneurs capable of building systems that respond to local problems and can eventually be sold beyond the Nigerian market.
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who also spoke at the summit, pointed to another weakness in the country’s digital ecosystem: computing capacity.
Nigeria has extensive subsea cable connections, but the infrastructure required to process the enormous volumes of data generated across the continent remains limited.
Sanwo-Olu noted that some African AI workloads are currently processed in Europe, a situation that creates additional costs and raises questions around latency and data sovereignty.
That gap, he argued, should be viewed not only as a challenge but also as a business opportunity.
Building data centres and other computing infrastructure in Nigeria could create a new investment market while allowing more African data to be processed closer to where it is generated.
The push for local technology also extends into government.
Digital systems could increasingly be used in areas such as revenue collection, public procurement, healthcare records, transportation, permitting and land administration, potentially creating a large domestic market for Nigerian technology companies.
GITEX Nigeria 2026 is providing a platform for some of those conversations, with the event bringing together local and international investors, technology companies and policymakers.
More than 200 investors from 30 countries, collectively managing about $200bn in assets, are expected to participate in the Lagos segment of the event.
The timing is significant as Nigeria continues to position technology as one of the engines that could help diversify an economy still heavily exposed to oil and other traditional sectors.
But building an AI economy will require more than policy announcements.
Reliable electricity, affordable computing, high speed connectivity, access to capital, quality education and a regulatory environment that encourages innovation will all determine how far local technology companies can go.
For now, the government’s message is that Nigeria wants to capture a bigger share of the economic value being created by artificial intelligence.
The challenge will be turning that ambition into homegrown companies, infrastructure and talent capable of competing not just in Nigeria, but across Africa and the wider global technology market.
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