Google has announced a $2.1 million (₦3 billion) commitment to fund programmes that will increase AI talent in Nigeria.
According to a press statement sent to Techpoint Africa, the money will be channelled into five Nigerian organisations working across AI upskilling, innovation support, and cybersecurity.
FATE Foundation and the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) will embed an advanced AI curriculum into universities to deepen the country’s technical talent pipeline, while the African Technology Forum (ATF) will run an innovation challenge designed to help developers build real-world AI products.
On the digital safety front, Junior Achievement Africa will expand its online safety curriculum for young people, and the CyberSafe Foundation will build cybersecurity capacity for public institutions.
The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, said the intervention comes at a critical moment as Nigeria looks to harness the projected $15 billion economic value AI could add to its GDP by 2030.
He described the initiative as an example of private-sector support needed to “nurture talent, strengthen infrastructure, and advance national AI priorities.”
This news follows the launch of Google’s AI Skilling Blueprint for Africa, which aims to help Africa close its critical skills gap.
These initiatives are important as Africa holds just 1% of global AI talent, reflecting a wide gap when it comes to specialised AI talent. Despite these, young talents like Abiodun Adetona of Decide, Saheed Azeez of YarnGPT, and Obinna Chimdi of ChatATP are still springing up.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s universities still struggle with gaps in AI-focused faculty and research infrastructure, a challenge FATE Foundation says this initiative directly targets.
Google’s Director for West Africa, Olumide Balogun, noted that the company has invested heavily in Nigeria’s digital ecosystem over the past decade, citing the Equiano subsea cable and the 2023 Skills Sprint programme, which trained over 20,000 people in digital and AI skills.
The new funding, he said, is aimed at ensuring Nigerians can participate meaningfully in the global AI economy while operating in a safer digital environment.
