Nigeria has taken a firm stance against reliance on imported artificial intelligence models, declaring that systems deployed within the country must be locally developed, trained on representative Nigerian data and subject to domestic oversight.

At the Innovate AI 2026 conference in Lagos, policymakers, fintech executives and academics warned that depending on foreign-built AI systems could undermine inclusion, erode trust and weaken national sovereignty. They argued that Africa’s largest economy must move beyond adopting off-the-shelf tools developed abroad and instead build systems that reflect its economic realities, cultural context and governance priorities.

 

Delivering the opening address, Ehia Erhabon, president of the AI Nigeria Foundation, urged stakeholders to shift attention from AI’s capabilities to its governance, accountability and long-term societal impact. He pointed to the Foundation’s grassroots initiatives, including AI community hubs across 19 states engaging more than 25,000 learners monthly, as well as the Nigeria AI Landscape Report tracking growth in the ecosystem.

He warned that innovation without responsibility risks widening inequality and damaging public trust.

 

Speaking on behalf of the AI Nigeria Foundation board and in his capacity as president of the FinTech Association of Nigeria, Stanley Jacob said Nigeria must anchor AI expansion on inclusivity, accountability and sovereignty. He argued that models operating locally should be trained on representative Nigerian datasets and supervised by domestic institutions.

According to him, responsible AI is not a limitation but the foundation for innovation that can scale sustainably.

The urgency of the push reflects rapid AI adoption across Nigeria’s fintech sector, where firms increasingly deploy algorithms for fraud detection, credit scoring and regulatory compliance. Industry leaders cautioned that systems trained primarily on non-African data could misclassify users in an economy characterised by informal employment and fluctuating income patterns, potentially excluding viable borrowers and small businesses from access to finance.

Natalia Lyarskaya, managing director of credit at digital lender Kuda, noted that AI-driven decisions carry lasting human consequences. She warned that inclusion does not happen automatically and that poorly contextualised systems could marginalise legitimate borrowers.

Government officials signalled that regulatory safeguards are in development. In a virtual address, Kashifu Abdullahi Inuwa, director-general of the National Information Technology Development Agency, said Nigeria’s National AI Strategy is built around infrastructure development, fairness, transparency, accountability and privacy by design.

 

He said AI governance must cover the full lifecycle of systems, from data collection and model training to deployment and ongoing monitoring, to ensure Nigerian values remain embedded in technologies operating within the country.

Concerns about digital colonisation also featured prominently. Nkemdilim Uwaje Begho, chief executive of Future Software Resources, stressed that Africa must retain ownership of its data and avoid wholesale adoption of foreign regulatory templates that may not adequately protect local interests.

From the media sector, Victoria Ajayi, chief executive of TVC Communications, said her organisation uses AI tools to deliver news in indigenous languages while maintaining strict editorial oversight, watermarking and copyright protections to preserve public trust.

International perspectives reinforced the call for deeper oversight. Jonnie Penn of the University of Cambridge described AI as a socio-technical system requiring cultural and institutional awareness beyond technical design, urging organisations to treat deployment as a continuous process requiring monitoring and public engagement.

 

Across sessions, speakers agreed that Nigeria faces a narrowing window to embed local control before foreign-built architectures become entrenched. With AI adoption accelerating across finance, media and public services, stakeholders said the country must actively shape its systems rather than passively import them.

For Africa’s largest economy, the consensus was clear: the future of artificial intelligence in Nigeria will not be outsourced.