The Nigerian government has announced plans to establish the country’s first National AI Centre at the University of Jos (UNIJOS).
This strategic initiative comes as the latest Global AI Readiness Index reveals Nigeria ranks 72nd worldwide and fourth in Sub-Saharan Africa, trailing Kenya, South Africa, and Mauritius.
The 2025 Government AI Readiness Index, published by Oxford Insights, assesses 195 countries across six pillars: policy capacity, governance, AI infrastructure, public sector adoption, development and diffusion, and resilience.
While Nigeria has shown notable progress in policy capacity ranking 35th globally and in development and diffusion (49th), critical gaps remain in AI infrastructure and public sector adoption, areas where Sub-Saharan Africa lags significantly behind other global regions.
Egypt leads Africa at 51st globally, with ten African nations breaking into the top 100 worldwide. The index highlights how countries like Rwanda and Ethiopia have leapfrogged progress by establishing innovation hubs to mobilize AI investment and launch pioneering initiatives.
For Nigeria, the planned National AI Centre represents a direct response to these benchmarks. The facility is envisioned as a hub for research, policy development, and public-sector AI integration will help at transforming the nation’s growing tech talent into tangible AI-driven solutions for governance, healthcare, agriculture, and security.
Nigeria’s recent advancements in AI policy and international collaboration frameworks have laid a foundation, but implementation remains the next frontier. “Important gaps remain in advancing Sub-Saharan Africa’s AI readiness,” notes the Oxford Insights report, stressing that the region still ranks eighth out of nine globally in both governance and development pillars.
The establishment of the centre at UNIJOS is expected to address these gaps by centralizing resources, fostering public-private partnerships, and creating a clear pathway from AI research to national deployment.
