President Bola Ahmed Tinubu engaged in high-level discussions with Google CEO Sundar Pichai on advancing Nigeria’s role in artificial intelligence (AI) and digital innovation. The meeting, held in Paris, focused on forging strategic partnerships to drive Nigeria’s position as a technology hub in Africa.
The discussions explored five key areas: expanding scalable cloud infrastructure, equipping the workforce with future-ready skills, fostering AI research and innovation, accelerating cloud adoption, and strengthening Nigeria’s global tech presence.
“We are also exploring partnership opportunities with Google, which will focus on five key areas: enhancing scalable cloud infrastructure, equipping our workforce with essential skills for the future, promoting AI innovation and research, driving cloud adoption, and elevating Nigeria’s standing in the global tech landscape as a hub for innovation and AI transition” President Tinubu enumerated on X (also known as Twitter)P
As part of efforts to bolster Nigeria’s AI ecosystem, the government is collaborating with Awarri Technologies to develop critical AI software infrastructure tailored to the country’s arts, culture, languages, and societal needs—areas that have been largely overlooked by existing AI models.
A key initiative includes building a data capture platform and a large language model (LLM) for Nigerian languages, in partnership with the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR).
The partnership discussions with Google align with President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which prioritizes economic diversification through industrialization, digitization, and technological innovation. This initiative is expected to empower businesses, create new economic opportunities, and position Nigeria as a key player in the global digital economy.
The Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy will oversee the strategy, while the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) will lead its implementation.
The Nigerian Honourable Minister for Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani said:
“Extremely productive conversations with President President Ahmed Tinubu and Sundar Pichai today which underscores our commitment as a government and Google’s ongoing support towards developing Artificial Intelligence skills and innovation in critical sectors in Nigeria.”
Awarri Technologies, named after the Yoruba word “Awari” meaning “seek and find,” aims to merge Indigenous intelligence with AI-driven advancements.
The startup, which launched its AI research lab last year, is developing Nigeria’s first government-supported LLM to improve language representation in AI models. However, experts have raised concerns over Awarri’s capacity to lead such a project, as well as questions regarding data ownership.
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Following the meeting, Google CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged Nigeria’s vast AI potential and reaffirmed the company’s commitment to supporting AI skill development, fostering innovation, and strengthening the country’s growing tech ecosystem.
“It was great meeting with President Tinubu. We talked about the immense potential of AI in Nigeria, and how we can partner to expand AI skills, enable innovation, and support Nigeria’s growing tech ecosystem” Pichai attested
“Nigeria is poised to take the lead in AI and technology—this is merely the start of an exciting journey,” Pichai stated.
With these developments, Nigeria is set to establish itself as a frontrunner in AI and digital transformation, leveraging global partnerships to accelerate technological growth.
