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A Conversation With Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s Minister of Innovation

You have set a very ambitious goal for Nigeria which is to achieve 70% digital literacy by 2027. What are the main challenges that you anticipate in reaching these targets and how do you intend to address them?

To answer the question, we have to put into context why digital literacy is important in the world we live in today. As we continue to push the frontiers of digital technology, it is crucial to find ways to ensure that we can use these technologies to solve problems. Technology is becoming a major part of nearly all that we do as humans. We are beginning to see how it is facilitating access to services and increasing productivity: many businesses are now completely relying on it. 

The growth that we want to see in our economy is linked with our people’s ability to use digital technologies effectively, which is why we have set this target. However, the challenge is to reach that number. As you can imagine, a prerequisite for digital literacy is connectivity and we still have a significant number of people that do not have access to the Internet because the current state of connectivity on the continent is limited. Connectivity is thus going to be a significant challenge. However, we have made significant progress in our telecommunications sector; it is not enough but we are making progress.

The second prerequisite will be ensuring that the content that we want to leverage is available and that people can access it. Accessibility is going to be extremely important to reach our goal of 70% digital literacy. How do we ensure that the content that we use will provide opportunities for those who are not able to use the platforms for learning as well? They are still a major part of society and do not have yet found a solution to reach them.

From experience, I think the biggest challenge is going to be motivation. The government can have the intention to help people learn, and become digitally literate, but the challenge is still: how do we encourage people to take it seriously ? Bearing in mind that digital literacy is not the same as digital skills — which are a completely different ballgame —, how do we motivate people to stay focused on that goal ? People who get digital skills can have a decent job in technology. Data literacy, on the other hand, is really just learning the basic skills that are required to be integrated into the economy. 

In the nigerian context, what is your plan to get these investments in digital literacy affecting positively and directly rural communities and underserved regions?

Two things. First, there is a long term initiative that we are currently working on, which aims to bridge the gap between city and rural area: the fiber fund. It is a $2 billion fund to expand our current backbone from 35,000 kilometers to 125,000 kilometers. In other words, we are investing in 90,000 kilometers of fiber optic network across the country. However, that is a long term initiative and it is not going to connect those people in the next year or two. We expect that such a project will probably take about three to five years to be completed. 

What we are doing in the meantime, however, is investing in what we have called the Broadband Alliance. The Broadband alliance is focused on enhancing the existing infrastructure that we have in the country, which is about 35,000 kilometers of optic fiber network. We have a government-owned satellite — the only one in the West African region — which allows us to connect difficult-to-reach locations. One of the projects we started in the first three months of our appointment was the deployment of connectivity to all local government secretariats across Nigeria — all 774 of them

In a recent speech in Brazil, you said you were inspired by the success of Chinese farmers using digital platforms to connect with consumers. Could you elaborate on that parallel ? How do you envision Nigeria replicating, importing or adapting this model to empower entrepreneurs and small businesses in rural areas ?

We found the case of the Chinese farmers extremely inspiring because when people talk about connectivity, they talk about connecting people but it is somehow abstract or difficult to actually picture cases of how this investment in connectivity leads to important economic opportunities for individuals. In China, the government is ensuring that farmers in rural areas have access to quality connectivity solutions. The farmers are even being trained to be able to livestream their products right from the villages to the consumers — becoming a phenomenon on TikTok. It has gone beyond farmers : small businesses are now streaming directly to customers. The middle layer of their supply chain is being taken out which allows them to sell directly to customers, which means they can also guarantee good returns on their products. 

Having an example of farmers being able to livestream their products and thus selling directly to consumers is very inspiring. 

It also encompasses the sustainability goals that we want to ensure : that products should not be left out for too long, they should not be traveling for too long, they should not be housed for too long and should ideally go from the farm to the consumer’s table. I thus consider this approach to be a very interesting way to empower these farmers. 

Beyond that, in Africa, when we think about connectivity, we are still limited to connectivity between people, connecting people to people. We tend to forget that connectivity is also about connecting things to things, and people to things, and that is what is responsible for the prosperity that we are beginning to see in a number of sectors globally. When you look at the use of connected technologies in mining, it is saving lives: making mines a lot more precise in their daily operations, and helping miners to use resources more sustainably. If you look at what connectivity is doing in security, it allows to govern previously ungoverned spaces, it is even useful to manage forestry or farms. All these opportunities are limited for developing countries if we only focus on connecting people to people. I think we are forgetting opportunities that exist as well and are very important. The next conversation that we need to be having is about the link between connectivity and prosperity in developing countries. Focusing on connecting people to others is not sufficient. 

These investments and connectivity often go with partnerships and subsidizers such as global tech leaders the likes of Microsoft, the Gates Foundation or Google. How is Nigeria ensuring that these collaborations foster local innovation and capacity building, as you claim, rather than just importing foreign solutions ? How do you translate this knowledge locally ?

What you are touching on there is actually the critical part of ensuring that investment in connectivity is inclusive.

It is, indeed, one thing to invest in fiber optic networks and connect people so that they can probably gain access to the global economy and to information globally, but it is another thing to ensure the services that people need are available precisely to the people. So if we have good connectivity in Nigeria, how does that translate to the ability of our citizens to be able to interact with the government seamlessly? There is going to be a need for the development of applications and solutions that can help to do that. How can I, as a citizen, be able to rely on robust connectivity platforms to be able to access healthcare in Nigeria? I think we are going to need local people building applications: that is why we think investments in the ecosystem are so important 

When you look at our strategic blueprint, our fourth pillar is focused on innovation, entrepreneurship and capital. In other words, we need to do a good job at investing in our infrastructure, to train more people to have a strong workforce and to have a decent set of policies for the digital economy. Otherwise, there is going to be a limit to how much gains we can get out of all the investments that we have made. Working with these organizations is thus extremely important to continue to deepen our innovation ecosystem.

If we look at what the Gates Foundation is doing in Nigeria for instance, it is supporting our efforts on digital public infrastructure, ensuring that governments can leverage connected technologies to improve how we provide services to people. When we look at what we are doing with Microsoft and Google, which are funding AI startups in Nigeria or  training government officials in AI, these are elements of how we strengthen the local ecosystem. Another example is what we are doing with the AFD and the i-Dice program, which is meant to fund creative local startups in the country to build solutions that people want to use. Without that support, I think we would be limited.

If you put everything together, we have a robust approach to strengthening the innovation ecosystem, to ensuring the infrastructure is there to back our ambitions and to ensure that we have the right laws. For instance, we have a bill, the digital economy bill for Nigeria, which is going through its first reading at the National Assembly and the hope is that before the end of the year we will have a piece of legislation that guides how things are done within the digital economy, allowing tools like digital signature to become legal means of doing business in the country and facilitating data exchange within the economy, which is a major part of digital economy.

We are very conscious of the different roles of the different partners, whether these are large technology companies or foundations like Luminate, for instance, who is helping us set up an AI collective, which is a committee of practice of civil society organizations, startups and academia that are working on advancing AI in Nigeria. These are things that governments cannot do alone and we try to be very inclusive in the way we are looking at it.

Could you maybe elaborate a bit more on the AI Collective you mentioned?

We officially launched the AI Collective on 7 October. It is a community of practice focused largely on four things: knowledge generation; training; funding startups; documenting.

Within the community, we want people to be able to work together and generate new knowledge — whether on the application of AI in critical sectors or for critical services in Nigeria. We thus have an academic institution as part of the consortium and most of the academic institutions doing research in AI in Nigeria will also be part of the collective.

Talking about infrastructure, you touched upon the subject of policies. How is Nigeria balancing the need for data security and privacy with the very rapid growth of digital services and the needs in the country ?

The elephant in the room here is the acceleration of the digital economy, which development is moving incredibly fast. In some cases, the government is unable to catch up, although we constantly try to. Our Data Protection Commission is less than a year old. It has been extremely busy, policing the way companies are using and managing data. We are trying to extend their role from just policing to teaching as well and we want this institution to be able to enlighten businesses and individuals on why they need to take up responsible practices in the way they manage data.

We are convinced that there is a need for us to empower civil society organizations to do much more, and to join the government in the protection of society. Most of the time, civil society organizations tend to narrowly focus on policing the government. However, the digital economy is so robust that the people we need to police are beyond the government — as most of the time the government does not have the capability to use technology. Governments, especially in Africa, will often buy technology solutions from the private sector. There is thus a whole lot of work that we need to do to ensure that we continue to enlighten all the actors and the players — both on the public side and on the private side — on responsible data management, privacy and the danger of not collectively protecting.

Alongside digital literacy, how do you tackle the matter of education and training? 

It may seem natural to conclude that the measures that we are putting in place are mainly for the youth but the ones suffering most are actually the elderly. If one still uses Facebook for instance, we see most of our parents, aunts and uncles who share content that is visibly AI generated content without knowing it ; it is a widely spread, and dangerous phenomenon.

A lot of the young people are digital natives and of course you still find a lot of vulnerable young people, but the slightly older folks are the ones who are the most vulnerable. That is why we think about our digital literacy program from an inclusive perspective: how do we design a program that we can be sure to reach every Nigerian? That is why we are using digital tools, TV in some cases. We are also exploring the use of radio. 

The messages we send are about basic steps such as: how do you protect your identity online? How do you effectively use online banking without exposing yourself? What does your data mean? What are your rights and how do you protect them? What is artificial intelligence? How do you know if you are using AI generated content? We think those messages should reach everyone, and that is our biggest challenge: digital economy is not just for the youth, it is for everyone. We are moving banking online, as well as healthcare or education and thus cannot leave anyone behind.

Many countries, and particularly countries from the South, have been excluded from the international discussions on AI regulation — with over 100 UN Member States missing from the key agreements on AI so far. What role do you see Nigeria playing on the global stage in terms of AI governance?

AI has been led by companies and businesses in the West and Global North, where the impact of AI on productivity is already clear. Consequently, the conversation on AI in the Global North is not much around productivity — because it is already a reality. It centers around safety and ethical issues. The danger with this approach, and the reason why most of the Global South countries are struggling with that debate, is that they consider it not to be their reality.

If the conversation on AI were solely based on the value that it brings to society, it would make it a lot easier for us to talk about how we can properly govern it. But you cannot talk about governing AI when you do not have the right people around the table. You cannot outsource the leadership for how Nigeria or Kenya or South Sudan should think about artificial intelligence to a country in the North, because the way the countries in the north are thinking about AI is totally different and we understand why. Historically these countries have invested in AI and have been working on it for years. In the South, it is not the case. However, we see that the biggest opportunity for AI is actually in helping to raise the level of productivity across key sectors.

To sum it up: in the North, people are scared of losing their jobs because of AI. In our case, we are creating more jobs with it. 

Could you provide examples?

A good example would be that of farmers. 

I have a farm where we use connected technologies. We have probes in the store that are connected to satellites that are feeding back information. Young people just coming out of university are going to the rural area to work in places such as my farm. They are responsible for the drones, for the images that we collect with them, for the connectivity on the farm. Consequently, we are creating more jobs where typically we had not been able to create them. When you think of agriculture in places like Nigeria, the level of productivity in agriculture is really low, we thus need to make it a lot more productive, and a lot more attractive to get more people into farming. In this regard, technologies like AI can help us create opportunities. 

The same approach applies for education, in which we have significant gaps. In a context in which we do not have enough teachers, AI could allow us to personalize education a lot more.

In healthcare, AI can allow us to diagnose diseases more accurately…

There are so many roles and jobs that we can create thanks to AI. In my opinion, that conversation is what is missing from the AI debate right now and because it is not prioritized, most Global South countries are not taking AI conversation seriously. I’ve seen ministers before who say that the AI Act from Europe is good enough and that we just need to take it up and contextualize it to our reality — that is not true: when you do that, you miss out on the local nuances.

In what way these realities are featured in your AI strategy?

When we did our national strategy for AI in Nigeria, one of the things that came out really strongly — that was not seen in most places — was the role of the media. One cannot accelerate the development of artificial intelligence if the media does not have a good understanding of it because they are the ones who keep talking about it. In order to make sure ordinary people in society truly understood what AI was about, educating the media became a major part of our national strategy in Nigeria. On top of that, empowering the media to be able to engage in conversations and drive conversations around artificial intelligence is also extremely important.

The other important step is capacity building. While every expert is talking about governance ethics at the very top level, the reality is that if you do not include voices that are important in society, you stand the risk of not knowing what the best way to manage AI in a specific field. If the medical practitioners are not around the table when we are talking about how to govern, then when we create a high solution, how do we ensure that it is taking care of the needs and also the limitation of application of technology in the medical space? If the teachers are not around the table, how do we really understand how to use AI to supplement teaching? That is why we are building capacity around artificial intelligence. When people have a clearer understanding of artificial intelligence, they can better protect themselves instead of  relying on laws to do so alone — laws must be there to support it, but individuals must also be well educated about this phenomenon.

So I think for Nigeria, our focus is not to be relentless in how we approach this. This is why we have also prioritized becoming a nation that can become a source of talent for AI. As you know, about 60% to 70% of our people are under the age of 30, and our total population is 230 million people — and ramping up quickly. We will become a supplier of talent for AI.

We have also started building the first multimodal and multi-language, large language model in Africa from Nigeria, which has about five languages included. Again, this is being done in partnership with a local AI startup just to ensure that we are building the capacity of people locally. With Luminate, we started to take part in AI Collective, which is an open group that we hope can help to ensure that the development of AI in Nigeria is not only inclusive but being done ethically. That is something we are prioritizing.

How do you intend to share these good practices with others? Beyond Africa, do you envision an extension of this Nigerian success story on the global stage?

We already witness a stark competition for who is going to harmonize AI efforts in Africa. In my opinion, it is not the best way to go. We think the best way to go is always to think about AI in a thematic way: how can we bring in the best people with technical capabilities across the African continent together, regardless of their location, to help Africa think through the process of accelerating infrastructure investment ? How do we bring people together who are the best experts in ethics ? For instance, when you look at what UNESCO is doing, there is no competition: everybody knows UNESCO is invested significantly in ethics, why not gather behind what they are doing to ensure that we can spread that across the continent? 

We are going to start to see thematically focused groupings of that nature, and that is something that we want to back. It is also the approach many countries are taking, even though there has been a lot of divergence in the way the world is thinking about AI so far. The EU has its own approach, UK, France, the US, Asia. But one thing I think is working for everyone right now is the use of thematic conversations to bring experts together.

There is the idea floating that a very small number of countries — rich countries in the North, that produce these breakthrough technologies that are affecting the rest of the world — should be the ones to pay so that others regulate this technology. A sort of equivalent of the “loss and damages” approach but for AI. Do you share this idea?

Nations do not have any other choice but to regulate: we have to regulate ; we have to govern. Of course we can use partnerships, but we have to start helping Global South nations to see the economic value or the socio-economic value of this phenomenon — not just treat it as charity. If we continue to treat it as such, what you will get is that Global South nations will not prioritize development.

In the Global North, the conversation was shifted to only cover governance, ethics and safety because the development of AI is extremely advanced — it is not the case in the South. And we have to make a case for why focus must be put on AI. Why should governments invest in AI? When you come to countries that have limited resources, AI can help them better understand how to prioritize what they should be spending on. That is, primarily, an economic value-based solution. It is not charity. We need to start encouraging governments to see that way, asking ourselves: how do we build the capacity of people in these countries to appreciate the phenomenon? I think that is where we should put our focus. 

If we do not, we will continue to beg northern countries to pay for either the adoption, the governance or the development of AI in developing countries — and we know what that means. AI may never get to the point where it is productive enough, because you cannot make the most of AI by just buying it off the shelf or just adopting other approaches. That is where the biggest opportunity lies. Of course, we can all use ChatGPT, but you also know what is possible if you can train a model to take all the datasets from all the data that has been generated by the Nigerian government since its creation — and make sense out of that. You know what you can find. If you go through the archive of the Nigerian Television Authority — that has recordings from time immemorial — you know what you can do with that. You are not going to get that done by just shipping the data to someone and getting it. That is why we have to build the capacity in our country.

While partnering with major corporations such as Microsoft or Google (for your AI Fund for example), how will you make sure that their contributions effectively benefit the Nigerian economy?

Just to clarify, Google is supporting the local ecosystem with a port of funding of about $1.7 million — which includes the funding of some startups with a very small amount of money, but mainly supporting academic researchers, supporting training programs and a number of other things. It is a program that, of course, the government is grateful for, and that we promote. The goal there is that whatever comes out of it also fits into the AI Collective that Luminate is supporting. 

Our goal is to be able, once we have a large community of people working on AI, to attract support for them from multiple sources. Although Luminate helped in setting up the collective, there have been conversations around what other partners we can bring in to support that community of practice. That is what Google’s support is about. We have indeed a similar form of support from Microsoft and a couple of other organizations are doing the same.