Some experts in the Information Technology sector have called for urgent need to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into education, health and workforce development to ensure Nigeria’s competitiveness in the digital economy.
The experts made the call during a panel discussion at a High-level Convening on Shaping an Inclusive AI Ecosystem for Nigeria on Monday in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event was organised in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy with support from Luminate, Ford Foundation, and MacArthur Foundation.
Dr Yetunde Anibaba ,Senior Lecturer, Accreditation Director, Lagos Business School ,Pan-Atlantic University, said that there was need to focus on the use of AI in education in three ways.
“The three ways will be in terms of the perspective of Nigeria’s curriculum, from the perspective of up skilling the teachers or lecturers, and from a regulatory perspective.
“In terms of the curriculum, we need to start thinking about how to integrate basic AI knowledge from a very foundational place.
“So it needs to be integrated from the most fundamental level in our educational curriculum,” she said.
According to Aniaba, apart from having an AI compliant curriculum, there is need to also train and upscale teachers who will handle the AI curriculum to deliver the knowledge from the basic to university level.
“This also goes for our regulators.
“I think that if we look at these three dimensions, we should be on a good footing to ensuring a proper and completely sufficient integration of AI into education,”she said.
She said that there was also need to train Nigerian workforce to change their mindset on AI and embrace it as an enabler because it would help to accelerate productivity.
Dr Olubayo Adekanmbi, Founder, Data Science Nigeria, described AI as an equaliser.
Adekanmbi said that it had possibilities of giving opportunities to people, even in rural and marginalised communities to have access to digital intelligence.
He said that it could help farmers in managing their farms, increase productivity and make more money.
“It will also help in managing their financial lifestyle providing basic advisory services.
“Those are the foundational opportunities that AI has made possible, irrespective of where you are or your level of education, for as much as you can interface with a basic technology, you can increase your productivity.
“In health, today with the capability of artificial intelligence, the knowledge of all the doctors in the world can be codified and sequenced, and can be accessed on basic device .
“Even in rural communities where there are no doctors and we have just a basic community health worker or perhaps even a traditional health care attendant, the power of AI is available.
“They can speak in their local language to get help,” he said.
Mr Dapo Olorunyomi, Choef Executive Officer, Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), said that the advent of technology led to misinformation and disinformation that needed to be checked.
“So if we are going to safeguard the conversations to build democratic communities, then we really have to find how conversation between media and technology companies can come to the table.
“This is to ensure that they play a very important role for media literacy,” he said.
Dr Olubunmi Ajala, National Director, National Centre for Artificial Intelligence, said that the government had a role to play when it comes regulating AI for effective use.
Ajala said that there should be guidelines on the use of AI in terms of how to protect individual rights and privacy in setting the standards.
“When people are talking about the regulation, we need to develop the skills of the people in government, likewise Nigerians.
“This is for them to be ready for the AI revolution that is about to happen, and Nigeria is taking steps to meet up,” he said.
Dr Osasuyi Dirisu, Executive Director, Policy, Innovation Centre, said that Nigeria being Africa’s most populous nation, was uniquely positioned to leverage AI technology for economic growth and societal development.
“However, the growth has been slow.
“The sector remains fragmented with AI access concentrated in urban areas leaving rural areas behind.
“These disparity, if not addressed, would threaten the system and limit Nigeria’s capacity to benefit fully from AI.
“It is against this backdrop that the conference was organised to create opportunity to begin to build a vibrant, strong and inclusive AI for Nigeria,” he said. (NAN)
