A Tech expert, Olatunji Igbalajobi, on Monday, July 22, 2024, said it is important for Nigeria to make efforts towards closing the infrastructure gap to be fully prepared for Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption.
Mr Igbalajobi, who is the managing partner at Cyber Code Ltd., an Information Technology (IT) firm, in an interview in Lagos said, Nigeria has significant challenges in preparing for AI adoption.
The tech expert the appropriate infrastructure needs to be in place before such an innovation could be well utilised by Nigerians.
His words, “Looking at the current state of our technology, you will agree with me that we are still growing, pretty much in the area of broadband penetration increment.
“For instance, if we go to some of the rural areas, one can see that they do not have reliable internet access, so how can they deploy AI in such environments.
“No doubt, there are some regulations in place that can help in the area of data management, which also has a lot of role in AI development and adoption,” Mr Igbalajobi said.
Data management
Speaking on cybersecurity and data management, Mr Igbalajobi said there are still issues with the implementation and regulation of guiding principles in alignment with the provisions of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) and Nigerian Data Protection Regulation (NDPR).
He added that there was a need for more comprehensive and updated regulations, physically addressing AI and advanced security threats.
However, on the positive side, Mr Igbalajobi, said Nigeria had a vibrant tech community that has already started exploring AI solutions, especially in the fintech industry.
He added that the majority of them rely on AI solutions for transactions, API integration and some other data analytics sets.
He also called for improvement and investment in the area of education, training and retraining of aspiring tech enthusiasts across Nigeria.
