The Nigerian government, through the Ministry of Communication, Innovation, and Digital Economy, has launched a multilingual large language model (LLM). This was announced by the Minister of Communications, Dr. Bosun Tijani at the end of the four-day AI workshop in Abuja.
An initiative led by Nigerian AI firm Awarritech, international tech firm DataDotOrg, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), and the National Center for AI and Robotics (NCAIR) was behind the development of the AI model.
Dr. Tijani emphasized that the model was trained in five low-resource languages and high-end English in order to help in the representation of low-resourced languages in AI datasets. Such initiative is also powered by the participation of more than 7,000 members from the 3MTT program in Nigeria, therefore increasing the quality of AI development and its application in the country.
The introduction of the AI model came at the time when the draft of the Nigeria’s National AI Strategy was presented, which resulted from an intensive consultation process that included over 120 AI experts. This approach spells out the readiness of Nigeria to benefit from AI to promote economic development and good leadership.
Part of the initial funding of the project is US$3.5 million and the funding has been contributed by international and local partners. This comprises a direct funding of $1.5 million and another $2 million invested by 21st Century Technologies. The prominent supporters are the UNDP, UNESCO, and leading global technology companies like Meta, Google, and Microsoft. This fund will aid the pilot projects and the progress of AI systems in Nigeria.
Furthermore, the United States has been keen on a partnership with Nigeria to deliberate on possible alliances in the digital economy and AI developments. This alliance is anticipated to spur economic growth and provide a safe, transparent deployment of AI technologies.
A central institution of this initiative, NCAIR has been significantly renovated to foster AI research and development. The centre now has access to more than 2,500 virtual CPUs connecting to 1 petabyte of storage at GBB, increasing its computational power. These improvements allow a variety of activities, such as AI research in government and the enterprise, remote connections of AI hubs and pods within Nigeria, and other activities.
In addition, NCAIR will be capable of supporting projects of national importance and academic research with new dedication for reporting and publication to all conducted projects. The initiative does not only consolidate the local AI capabilities but also provides a solid base for further advancement and utilization of AI in the critical segments of the economy.
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