FG Canvasses Increased Investment in AI to Drive Digital Economy
Oghenevwede Ohwovoriole in Abuja
The Federal Government has called for increased investment in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to drive the nation’s digital economy and data sovereignty.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, made the call Monday at the opening ceremony of the GITEX Nigeria 2026 Government Leadership and AI Summit in Abuja, themed, ‘Beyond Connectivity: The Bridge to Sovereign AI and Innovation.’
He said Nigeria must move beyond being a consumer of technology to becoming a builder, producer and exporter of digital solutions and AI.
Akume, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Political and Economic Affairs Office, Mrs. Bekearedebo Warrens, stated that government’s digital transformation agenda was being implemented through series of reforms designed to establish foundations of a competitive digital economy.
“These reforms capture the very essence of where Nigeria is headed, not merely as a consumer of technology, but as a builder, producer and exporter of digital solutions and artificial intelligence,” he said.
According to him, the government’s reforms in digital identity were aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s data sovereignty and establishing a more robust foundation for digital public infrastructure.
He said the recently referenced reforms to the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) framework would strengthen the country’s ability to manage and secure its digital identity infrastructure.
Akume also highlighted Project Bridge, through which the government plans to deploy about 90,000 kilometres of fibre-optic infrastructure across the country to connect states, local government areas and wards.
The connectivity programme, he stated, was being complemented by telecommunications infrastructure aimed at extending broadband access to millions of Nigerians in underserved communities.
The SGF further pointed to the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme as a key component of the government’s human-capital strategy.
He said the programme had recorded about 1.87 million registrations across all 774 local government areas, with more than 125,000 Nigerians trained, particularly in areas such as cloud computing, AI, cybersecurity and software engineering.
Akume said the objective was to develop a workforce capable of creating digital products rather than simply consuming technologies developed elsewhere.
On cloud infrastructure, he said the newly unveiled National Digital Cloud Policy was targeting $750 million in private investment in Nigeria’s cloud and data infrastructure over the next 24 months.
He added that the policy, alongside Project Bridge and 3MTT, was intended to connect infrastructure, skills, government demand and private-sector investment to create a stronger domestic technology ecosystem.
The SGF called on government institutions, investors, developers, innovators and the private sector to use GITEX Nigeria as a platform for practical partnerships rather than rhetoric.
He added that Nigeria already had significant elements of the infrastructure, expertise and partnerships required to build a sovereign digital economy, but needed stronger collaboration and adoption.
Earlier, the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kachifu Abdullahi, said AI should be treated as strategic infrastructure rather than merely another technological tool.
Abdullahi argued that AI could enable governments to develop intelligence about their economies, citizens and national security, making control over the underlying technology increasingly important.
He said sovereignty in the AI era should encompass the entire technology stock, including connectivity, computing power, data centres, cloud infrastructure, data governance and AI models.
“As a nation, we have capacity to build and develop the technology that can help us to build the intelligence about our nation. We need to start thinking about the connectivity, the computer power, the data centres, the cloud capability,” he said.
According to him, Nigeria and Africa could not afford to repeat the mistakes of previous industrial revolutions, when the continent failed to adequately translate its resources and potential into technological leadership.
“We cannot afford to repeat the same mistake during the fourth industrial revolution,” he said, stressing the need for political will, institutions and appropriate legal frameworks.
Chairman, Senate Committee on ICT and Cybersecurity, Senator Salisu Afolabi, said Nigeria’s technological sovereignty was inseparable from national security and economic sovereignty, adding that rapid digitisation of government operations made it essential for Nigeria to maintain control over the technology and data supporting those systems.
“Digitising government processes without ensuring technological sovereignty could leave sensitive government and citizen data under the control of foreign entities,” he added.
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