Nigeria's AI fund to drive job creation
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00:00 Nigeria's Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy Bosun Tijani says the
00:06 country is poised to take its position in the artificial intelligence space with the
00:10 launch of an AI fund and targets the kick-off of the first set of 100 jobs in Lagos.
00:17 Speaking with CNBC Africa, he notes the recently launched portal to fast-track the implementation
00:23 of the Nigeria Startup Act aims to ensure proper labelling of start-ups.
00:28 Take a listen.
00:29 I think the tenet of it is, has to be put on the fact that technology has permeated
00:35 our lives in significant ways.
00:37 So nations don't have a choice, whether you're developed or developing, to prioritise and
00:42 accelerate the application of technology.
00:45 I think it's one clear way through which we can drive the diversification that we want
00:49 to see in our economy, but also raise the level of productivity as well.
00:53 Our world has been through a lot in the last three to four years, so economies are struggling.
00:58 The sure, one sure way to come out of that is to prioritise the use of technology.
01:02 And platforms like this demonstrate the role of the private sector in mainstreaming the
01:09 thinking around technology application and how we can use it as a nation.
01:12 That's why it's extremely important.
01:14 No doubt it's also important for Nigeria to position itself as we've looked at the trajectory
01:18 of the industrial revolutions and like you've also highlighted, the tenets we have to take
01:23 from the fourth industrial revolution.
01:25 For Nigeria now, let's talk about the establishment of the AI fund, the impact this is to achieve.
01:30 Absolutely.
01:31 I think artificial intelligence is one that is moving and flying, literally.
01:36 So whether you're, again, global south, global north country, you have to prioritise it.
01:41 Because you have to prioritise, you also have to recognise that you have to play a role
01:44 in its development as well.
01:46 It's not one of those technological developments that you can just be a consumer of.
01:50 You have to truly participate in it.
01:52 And while we may not have been investing significantly in research and development, we need to take
01:58 into consideration the fact that Nigeria is a nation with over 60 people under the age
02:02 of 25, which means we do have a youthful population.
02:06 And most of the countries in the West, for instance, in Europe, are countries with ageing
02:10 population and also their population is reducing.
02:13 And technology requires workforce, proper technical workforce.
02:17 And that's where we come to play.
02:18 We can become the destination for technology workforce in the world.
02:22 If we train our people, not only do we build the workforce that we need to drive the change
02:27 that we want to see in our country, we can also become net exporter of technology talent
02:31 to the rest of the world.
02:32 And that's the way we're looking at it.
02:34 So investing in artificial intelligence is not something where we're building a castle
02:38 in the air or on sand.
02:40 It's actually about leveraging the opportunity that exists within it.
02:44 Today, we're going to be launching the first set of AI jobs in Nigeria.
02:48 There's a local company called Awari that is now creating a pool of talent and workforce
02:52 for AI annotation and labeling.
02:54 And we want Nigeria to be a global destination.
02:57 And there's no how we'll wrap up this conversation without talking about the 3MMT and also the
03:01 implementation of the NIDRA Stacked Up Act.
03:04 Let's talk about updates here and how much of an impact we've been able to make.
03:07 I think with 3MMT, we've been actually surprised.
03:10 You know, in less than a month, our target is over the next four years to train three
03:16 million technical talent.
03:17 But in less than a month, we've received over 1.5 million applications.
03:20 And our approach is to do the first three months, 30,000.
03:24 After that, move to 10% of our target, which is 300,000.
03:29 And after the 300,000, we can scale it to 3 million.
03:32 But what we've seen so far and the enthusiasm and the support we're getting from private
03:36 industry or private companies is also quite exciting as well.
03:39 So that's one thing that right now we're putting resources into.
03:43 We're committed to making it work.
03:45 And we know that it's going to take us to where we want to be.
03:47 But we know it's not enough to train talent.
03:49 We also need to be building innovative ideas.
03:52 We need to be creating job opportunities.
03:54 And this is where the technology startups also come to play because they're the ones who
03:58 innovate and come up with new job opportunities for people.
04:02 And that's why we've also started the implementation of the Startup Act.
04:05 Yes, and talking about the Startup Act, I also want to talk about the portal, which
04:08 was recently also launched as well.
04:09 What sort of impact are we looking to make here?
04:11 And how does this catalyze the dream of expanding the scope of the Nigerian landscape?
04:15 I think the portal speaks to the importance of data set, right?
04:18 If you don't know who are the startups in the country, it's going to be difficult for
04:21 you to be able to support them.
04:22 So what the portal is about is encouraging startups to go register so that we can label
04:27 startups appropriately.
04:28 This is not for tax purposes, right?
04:30 It's really to understand who are the people locally that are building.
04:33 And once we can do that, we can get them involved in the implementation of the Startup Act,
04:37 which requires that we should have a council, we should have a secretariat.
04:41 But this has to be done in an open and transparent manner.
04:44 And that's why we want all the startups in the nation to be found.