Nigeria to build AI with local languages
Hello my follow Hivers
Today I want to inform you about the latest AI news in Nigeria.
Its my first post as a premium subscriber 😀 
Yesterday, at the GITEX Nigeria event in Abuja on September 1, 2025, Dr. Bosun Tijani, our Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, reaffirmed Nigeria commitment to lead Africa in artificial intelligence (AI) through a pioneering multilingual large language model (LLM).
This initiative represents a strategic effort to embed our indigenous languages into AI development, boasting our national progress. Conventional AI models we all know are predominantly trained on English and major global languages.
Our Nigeria's LLM will be designed to process the key low-resource indigenous languages(Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo).
The LLM project, launched in April 2024 will be builds on the initial draft of Nigeria's National AI Strategy. This strategy emphasizes five pillars:
- Infrastructure,
- Ecosystem building
- Adoption
- Responsible frameworks
- Governance
The LLM will collaborate with local firm Awarritech, global partner DataDotOrg, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), and the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR).
The seed funding of $3.5 million, including $1.5 million in direct grants from UNDP, UNESCO, Meta, Google, and Microsoft, plus $2 million from 21st Century Technologies for GPU resources, underscores international support.
The minister also highlighted at GITEX that AI must balance global trends with local needs, warning that without such adaptation.
A key component amplifying this initiative is the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) program, a flagship under the Renewed Hope agenda launched of our President Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, aimed at training three million Nigerians in high tech skills to power the digital economy and position the country as a net talent exporter, 3MTT aligns directly with thr President's vision of creating two million digital jobs by 2025.
The program focusing on skills like software development which am a beneficiary of it, UI/UX design, data science, AI/machine learning, cyber security, and cloud computing.
We undergo a three-month hybrid curriculum, combining self-paced online courses with hands-on sessions at our applied learning clusters (ALCs).
Tijani stressed at GITEX that Africa's youth bulge 60% under 25 positions the continent uniquely for AI leadership, but requires unified standards, shared protocols, and governance for a better Nigeria.
The program's impact is evident: fellows like I am a beneficial of the training. According to Statista, it forecasts our AI market at $890 million in 2025, growing to $8.75 billion by 2030, with 3MTT fellows driving this expansion in sectors like agriculture, healthcare, and education.
The benefits of this LLM will be on the typical Nigerians who mostly uses their dilates to communicate, it will help educate them without the use of English and what their mother tongue.
All images are gotten from 3MTT site
Posted Using INLEO