NIGERIA SETS TO MAXIMIZE AI BENEFITS

The Nigerian Government through National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has completed the first draft of the National Policy on Artificial Intelligence which would soon be ready for transmission to the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

Owing to the enormous promises of the AI, the government published an application in 2022 from which about 351 volunteers applied and 63 industry experts were drawn.

The NITDA’s Director General, Kashifu Inuwa during the final virtual meeting of the volunteer group, commended the group for the outstanding  work in drafting the Policy for Nigeria.

He said NITDA initiated the process of co-creating the Policy for collaboration between the government and private establishment in the society, stressing the potential of Artificial Intelligence in transforming and developing various sectors including  health and life preservation, Education and Research; Finance; Media and Telecommunications; Labour and Productivity; General and Special Issues could not be underestimated.

He adjudged the draft as robust, saying that Nigerians must be guided on the  culture and values of digitization to prevent the risk AI poses such as bias, privacy violation and job displacement.

Inuwa explained that the next phase of the work would be to draft implementation strategic plan to achieve the purpose of which the policy is formulated, collaborate with the various stakeholders and thereafter send it to the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy for onward passage to Federal Executive Council for approval.