Damilola Esebame

One of my highlights from Moonshot by @TechCabal was a panel on “The State of AI in Nigeria.” I’ve spent the last decade examining how technology changes businesses, economies, and society. More recently, much of my work has focused on AI, including its economics, infrastructure, security, and governance. I wanted to hear from those building Nigeria’s AI ecosystem. Dr. @bayoadekanmbi moderated the conversation, and I liked the questions he asked the panel. With all the excitement around AI, what value are Nigerians actually getting? @JohnsonAgogbua, founder & CEO of @KasiCloud, spoke about the need for local computing infrastructure and made a compelling case for data centres and GPUs capable of supporting AI applications at scale, as Nigerian businesses develop and deploy them. This is a subject I’ve explored in my writing, including a recent @FastCompany piece on compute sovereignty. There’s a global race to build AI infrastructure, and Nigeria needs to think seriously about its place in it. But we also need to understand the economics, energy requirements, and where local capacity will deliver the greatest value. @bunmiokunowo of @gatesfoundation raised another question that deserves more attention. Nigeria has promising AI projects, some of which have moved out of pilot purgatory into production heaven, but getting a lot more others beyond the pilot stage remains a challenge—an issue I’ve been exploring in conversations with leading AI voices @mayijisesan of @TheSVGirl. I was glad to hear him speak about the importance of building solutions around the people who will actually use them, including frontline health workers, farmers, and communities with limited access to technology, which I agree with. We sometimes become so fascinated by what technology can do that we spend too little time understanding what people need it to do. That was exactly what @satyx told me when we discussed the importance of defining business outcomes before deploying AI a few months ago. Dr. Yetunde Anibaba, Senior Lecturer at the @LBSNigeria, also spoke about the need for coherent AI policy across government. I agree. AI has implications for education, healthcare, agriculture, employment, security, infrastructure, & economic development. That’s why AI governance & policy are areas I’m increasingly working to contribute to, especially around responsible adoption, institutional capacity, & the economic implications of AI. Looking forward to continuing these conversations. While I truly believe Nigeria has enormous potential in AI, I’d like to see us become just as interested in the results as we are in the possibilities. That means better healthcare, more productive businesses, stronger research capabilities, & useful technology for people who have traditionally been left out PS: Of course, I took some cool photos with some cool peeps!😎 Cc: @peacelonge_onX, @efeoise_

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