Nigeria to benefit from Google AI lab—Google

Nigerian economy is projected to be a beneficiary of plan being made by Google to introduce Artificial Intelligence in the West Africa subregion. Head Google AI, Ghana, Moustapha Cisse, said that there are ongoing plans to see that Artificial Intelligence, AI, helps in managing Nigerian and other African economies, particularly on the areas of flood, disaster management, technological innovations, health among others. The Senegalese born Research Scientist, this at the Google Making AI event going on in the Netherlands capital of Amsterdam.

According to him, already some collaborations between Google and higher institutions of learning, Research centres and selected professors in Nigeria are ongoing and will help drive down the benefits of AI and other new technologies to the country. He said that although Google is building an AI lab in Ghana, Nigeria is in the picture to benefit from the arrangement because science and technology do not create barriers. He advised African countries to design a common collaborative template so that the continent does not play catch up with the wave of technological innovations sweeping across the globe. He said “There are a lot of Google tech initiatives in Africa, from Nigeria to Ghana and the rest, partnerships and collaborations are needed to exploit the potentials”

Reacting to the development, National Coordinator, Office for ICT Innovation and Entrepreneurship, National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Dr Amina Sambo- Magaji who also participated at the forum, said govt was ready to absorb the outcome of the collaborations and use same for the common good of Nigerians. She said “The National Information Technology Development agency is developing technology hubs in collaboration with the NSIO, where over 80 digital job creation centres are annually deployed across the country.

“NITDA has empowered its two subsidiaries,  Office for the Nigerian Content (ONC) and Office for ICT Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIIE) to ensure the enforcement of the local content policy and create an enabling environment for the Nigerian Technology Entrepreneurship ecosystem respectively”. She added that the OIIE has repositioned itself as an active facilitator and coordinator of the ecosystem through policy recommendations, programs, initiatives and collaborations with both national and international organisations.