*Dr. 鈥橞osun Tijani, Nigeria鈥檚 Minister for Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, is also overseeing the build-out of a national Artificial Intelligence trust to ensure AI remains a priority, and an AI scaling hub with the Gates Foundation to implement the technology across healthcare, agriculture, and education in the country

Isola Moses | 绿帽献妻

Dr. ‘Bosun Tijani, Nigeria鈥檚 Honourable Minister for Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy (FMCIDE), has shown admirable capacity in supervising the building an Artificial Intelligence (AI) scaling hub in the West African country.

This digital project is being executed in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to implement the technology across healthcare, agriculture, and education.

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颁辞苍蝉耻尘别谤颁辞苍苍别肠迟听reports Dr. Tijani has been named to TIME Magazine鈥檚 2025 list of the 100 most influential people in Artificial Intelligence.

The TIME100 AI list highlights global leaders and innovators shaping the development and impact of AI across the global world.

Tijani appears on the list alongside other global figures, including Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare; Elon Musk, founder of xAI; Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI; Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta; and Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon.

In his remarks on the recent announcement, the Minister for FMCIDE, in an X post, said the recognition had reflected Nigeria鈥檚 growing role in the global AI ecosystem.

He also stated: 鈥淭his acknowledgment represents the collective efforts of those who believe in AI鈥檚 ability to drive progress.”

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The ongoing AI scaling project enjoys funding from developmental partners, including the World Bank, particularly in regard to the installation of 90,000km of fiber-optic cables, TIME report also said.

The landmark project, when completed, will triple Nigeria鈥檚 fiber-optic capacity.

Besides, as Nigerian Minister and statesman, Dr. Tijani is tasked with innovation in the MInistry.

A longtime serial entrepreneur, “Tijani brings a startup mentality to the (Nigerian) Government,” a TIME report also noted.

He as well leads the country鈥檚 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme, which aims to equip three million Nigerians with technical skills by 2027.

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The Minister had told TIME: 鈥淲e may not have the compute and infrastructure, but we do have the talent.”

The promising 3MTT programme has trained almost 300,000 Nigerians with a mix of its digital platform and 220 in-person learning centres.

It also supports trainees in securing jobs, primarily through partnerships with local and global organisations.

A United Nations-European Union (UN-EU) partnership, for example, has placed fellows in internships, while data labelling companies like Awarri have been hiring graduates.

But to Tijani, training alone won鈥檛 address the nation鈥檚 needs.

Tijani said: 鈥淭here鈥檚 an opportunity to strengthen the quality of AI by helping to digitise our own reality.”

Besides, several 3MTT graduates are deployed within the Nigerian government to digitise Ministry operations, building datasets that can train AI systems on Nigerian information.

It is recalled that Tijani, April 2025, launched the country鈥檚 National AI Strategy, a plan developed with 150 domestic experts to responsibly develop Nigeria鈥檚 AI ecosystem.

Elsewhere, he is also overseeing the build-out of a national AI trust to ensure AI remains a priority after he leaves office; an AI scaling hub with the Gates Foundation to implement the technology across healthcare, agriculture, and education; and, with funding from developmental partners like the World Bank, the installation of 90,000km of fiber-optic cables, which would more than triple the country鈥檚 fiber-optic capacity.

As many only think of Silicon Valley when it comes to AI, 鈥渢he reality is, there’s no country where you have the ecosystem that is creating AI without government participation,鈥� Tijani stated.

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