FG Awards N200 Million Grants to 55 Nigerian Researchers, Innovators
The Federal Government has awarded a total of N200 million in grants to 55 Nigerian researchers and innovators through its Nigeria Artificial Intelligence Research Scheme (NAIRS) and Fourth Industrial Revolution Technology Application (4IRTA) programs.
This was announced by the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, in a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), where he also outlined the Ministry’s plans for the coming year.
Dr. Tijani highlighted that the government is currently working to harness the results of the funded research and solutions for the benefit of the economy.
“After awarding grants totaling N200 million under these two thematic programs to 55 Nigerian researchers and innovators, we are collating the outcomes of their demonstration projects to scale relevant solutions to businesses to drive increased productivity,” Tijani stated.
“We plan to expand these demonstration projects to other sectors, such as education and healthcare.”
Under the NAIRS scheme, 45 Nigerian researchers were selected in December last year to receive grants to develop artificial intelligence (AI) projects across various sectors, including healthcare, agriculture, finance, and education.
The scheme aims to foster a vibrant and sustainable AI ecosystem in Nigeria by providing grants, facilitating knowledge sharing, and promoting collaboration among individuals and organizations within the AI industry.
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The Minister emphasized that the selected researchers’ proposals address some of Nigeria’s pressing challenges and have the potential to “revolutionize industries, empower communities, and unlock a future full of possibilities.
“Similarly, in January this year, 10 startups were shortlisted under the 4IRTA program to receive up to N10 million in funding to deepen the application of agricultural technologies.
This initiative supports President Bola Tinubu’s mandate to cultivate 500,000 hectares of land across Nigeria to enhance food security.
Discussing further efforts to promote AI development and adoption in Nigeria, Dr. Tijani noted that the country’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy draft document is currently being reviewed by Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs). Once approved, it will serve as a national policy to guide all government efforts in AI.
The government has also formed the AI Collective, which will collaborate on research, projects, hackathons, and seminars to develop an inclusive approach to AI initiatives in Nigeria.
In addition to the AI Strategy, the government recently launched its own Large Language Model (LLM), positioning Nigeria as a leader in AI on the African continent.
According to Dr. Tijani, the LLM will be trained in five low-resource languages and accented English to ensure stronger language representation in existing datasets for developing AI solutions.
The AI tool is currently being developed by Nigerian startup Awarri, in partnership with global tech company DataDotOrg, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), and the National Centre for AI and Robotics (NCAIR).
