Abuja — The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, has urged African countries to adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI), or risk been left behind in digital development.
The minister stated this on Monday in Abuja at the 2025 Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX) with the theme: “Building Continental Digital Foundations for Equitable AI Development.”
He said the continent should invest in digital infrastructure to support AI.
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The minister stated: “If we are not delivering, AI will widen the gap between nations around productivity. Countries that are already ahead will move even faster and those that are still catching up will find it even more difficult to catch up.
“If we cannot close this gap, Africa risks becoming a continent of consumers, importing food, importing services, and importing innovation instead of producers and leaders; and we know that is not the Africa that we want.
“AI can disrupt jobs, but it will also create new ones. We must prepare our youth now with initiatives like Clean Energy for Talent, and similar projects across the continent. This is the only way we can build a workforce that is future-ready.
“In South Africa, satellite imaging and drone technology combined with AI models are now allowing farmers to monitor crops in real time and to respond to threats way faster.
“In a number of countries across our continent, many farmers still rely on guesswork and traditional practises because they lack access to these tools.
“The result, of course, is that farmers elsewhere are producing four to five times more food on the same line.
“These innovations mean that while workers elsewhere are becoming productive with AI, some of our own economies risk losing competitiveness if we do not adopt the same tools.”
He noted that
According to him, the central challenge is that while AI is becoming the engine for productivity, “I am waiting for our nation’s attempt to also adopt this technology.”
Speaking earlier, the Executive Vice President (EVP), of Dubai Trade Centre, Trixie LohMirmand, said that GITEX was not just an exhibition but a global digital ecosystem of diverse stakeholders cutting across industries, geographical areas and continents of the world.
LohMirmand explained that Nigeria was hosting GITEX because there was the need for a strong partnership between the public and private sectors, adding that the landscape was evolving in a mysterious space.
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“We want Nigeria not to be an outlier or on the fringe, we want Nigeria to be having a firm seat at that global table in the new digital AI economy.
“Nigeria is not defined by the headwinds or the challenges and the macro challenges that is out there. It is defined by the scale of opportunities of tomorrow,” he said.
The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kachifu Abdullahi said that African countries would require building capabilities in proper frameworks, develop infrastructure and building human capital to lead in AI revolution.
“We need to look at human capital development, Africa has the talent and we have the digital native population and we can position ourselves to be a leader in this revolution,” he said.