Nigeria Completes Draft of National Policy on Artificial Intelligence
The Nigerian government has completed the first draft of the National Policy on Artificial Intelligence, which will soon be transmitted to the Federal Executive Council (FEC). The policy was co-created by a team from the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and 63 industry experts, who were selected from 351 volunteers from Nigeria and abroad. The volunteers contributed to seven major areas covered by the policy, including education, finance, health, media and telecommunications, labour and productivity, general and special issues, and security.
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Kashifu Inuwa, the Director General of NITDA, commended the volunteer group for their exceptional work in developing the policy. He emphasised the potential of artificial intelligence to transform industries, save lives, and revolutionise the world, but also highlighted the risks associated with it, such as bias, privacy violations, and job displacement. Inuwa stated that the policy would guide the development and deployment of AI in Nigeria and an implementation strategic plan would be drafted to ensure that the policy achieves its purpose.
Inuwa explained that NITDA initiated the process of co-creating the policy because the agency strongly believes that the government can do some things that the ecosystem cannot and vice versa. He noted that consultants are often engaged to draft policies, but they lack the technical know-how of the subject matter, which is why the procurement processes always give them an edge over industry experts. However, the volunteers have achieved a commendable result-oriented approach to engage them, he added.
Inuwa assured the volunteers that the agency would send them letters of commendation, as no amount of money could assuage the commitment they put into drafting the policy. Emmanuel Edet, the head of NITDA Legal Unit, expressed the agency’s appreciation to the volunteer experts and requested their response when they are called upon again. The NITDA Secretariat will now take over and continue working on the document’s design to get it ready for publication
