- Three months after launching the country’s first Large Language Multilingual (LLM) AI model, Nigerian AI startup Awarri has announced it will work with 500 fellows from the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme as data collectors.
- The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy Bosun Tijani shared this update on X, praising Awarri's growth to 120 staff plus the new fellows.
- This AI project is a collaboration between Awarri, DataDot, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), and the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR).
The LLM, launched in April 2024 by the Communications Minister, aims to boost AI and technology in preserving Nigeria’s diverse cultures. It will use text and audio datasets to support local creators and developers.
This model will be trained on five low-resource languages and accented English to improve language representation in AI datasets. It also plans to involve over 7,000 fellows from the 3MTT Nigeria programme.
The 3MTT programme, organised by the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, is designed to build a pipeline of technical talent. It aligns with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s goal of creating 2 million digital jobs by 2025, training 30,000 people in twelve technical skills, including software development and cybersecurity.
Awarri, a Lagos-based AI company founded by Silas Adekunle and Eniola Edun, aims to tackle Nigeria’s youth unemployment and technical skills gap. With a team of over 100 locally trained AI experts, Awarri plans to train and hire 5,000 youths by 2026.
This new development is part of the Federal Government’s push for digital transformation, focusing on IoT, AI, and blockchain technologies.
In July 2024, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is setting up research centres across Nigeria's six geopolitical zones. These centres will focus on emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain.
The Federal Government of Nigeria recently introduced a new programme to train 1,000 citizens each year in artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and other technologies to surpass other countries globally in technology through this initiative.
