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Nigeria's vast potential in advancing artificial intelligence (AI) for socioeconomic growth and climate progress was explored in a new report.
It highlighted current and upcoming AI-driven applications and solutions that can tackle development issues in agriculture and food security, as well as energy and climate action in Nigeria.
AI for Africa: Use Cases Delivering Impact – Nigeria Deep Dive was released by the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), a global organisation unifying the mobile ecosystem to discover, develop and deliver innovation foundational to positive business environments and societal change on August 7, 2024.
Agriculture is a crucial industry in Nigeria, providing jobs for nearly 40 per cent of the population. Despite this, just 35 per cent of the nation's fertile land is cultivated.
Nigeria also faces recurring droughts and floods, which negatively impact agricultural production and heighten the vulnerability of rural communities.
The report highlighted significant opportunities for AI and digital technologies to boost resource efficiency, raise productivity, enhance market access and minimise post-harvest losses.
Nigeria’s prominent companies include Crop2Cash, Hello Tractor and Farmcrowdy.
Crop2Cash focuses on providing formal financing to smallholder farmers through technology. Their latest initiative, FarmAdvice, a national hotline for agriculture, was launched in July 2024.
Crop2Cash has assisted over 500,000 farmers across 13 states and reached more than 700 local government areas in Nigeria. Farmers have reported up to a 70 per cent increase in income and a 35 per cent rise in yield due to climate-smart inputs.
However, challenges such as limited data, high costs and a significant digital skills gap among smallholder farmers hinder the widespread adoption of AI.
Hello Tractor is a digital platform that connects tractor owners with farmers via a farm equipment sharing app and GPS fleet management solution, helping farming communities improve planning and preparedness amid unpredictable rainfall patterns.
Nigeria has the largest absolute electricity access deficit globally. Around 90 million people, or 45 per cent of the population, lack access to the electricity grid. While AI technology deployment in Nigeria is still in its early stages, it holds great potential for enhancing energy distribution and reliability.
Husk Power Systems, a United States-based solar mini-grid developer, is primarily focused on projects in Nigeria. The company plans to utilise AI to tackle major market challenges, such as the lack of regulatory frameworks for small power plants and difficulties in obtaining funding. To address these issues, Husk has implemented a pay-as-you-go model for electricity sales, which eliminates upfront costs for customers and ensures consistent revenue over the lifespan of its plants.
Although Nigeria has low greenhouse gas emissions, it is extremely susceptible to the effects of climate change. Despite being the sixth most populous country globally, Nigeria contributes only 0.3 per cent to global emissions. It ranks 53rd in vulnerability to climate change and is behind in climate adaptation readiness.
AI can be integrated into climate technology solutions to boost their efficiency and impact. Google Research has created AI models to predict floods, providing warnings up to seven days in advance to facilitate effective early warning and disaster preparedness.
In climate finance, Chemotronix employs AI alongside other emerging technologies like IoT and blockchain for its carbon credit platform, using the technology to gather environmental data for measuring, reporting, and verifying emissions.
However, major challenges such as limited data availability and insufficient compute capacity impede the use of AI for climate action in Nigeria, making it harder to conduct research, analysis, and forecasts for specific regions.
The Federal Government of Nigeria, through the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has revealed plans to establish research centres with cutting-edge technologies across the country’s six geo-political zones. These centres will concentrate on innovations in fields such as AI, Internet of Things and blockchain technology.
The report offered suggestions to aid AI implementation in Nigeria, such as investing in localised, domain-specific data collection; promoting language data development and local projects; ensuring safe and responsible data gathering; and optimising data handling and management procedures.