…”foundational data infrastructure and regulatory clarity must precede high-level automation efforts”

Nigeria’s push toward public sector artificial intelligence risks delaying unless government agencies address critical gaps in strategy, governance, and data readiness before deploying advanced AI models, according to global cloud communications platform Infobip.

While federal initiatives are driving rapid interest in emerging technology, experts warn that implementing AI tools on fragmented data architectures and weak governance frameworks will lead to wasted capital and operational bottlenecks.

For public sector digital transformation to succeed, foundational data infrastructure and regulatory clarity must precede high-level automation efforts, executives from Infobip and TBO Consulting Group said at a webinar hosted by Techeconomy.

The panel, organised as a pre-conference audience-engagement session ahead of Infobip forthcoming Nigeria MDA and Financial Sector Summit in Abuja, examined what it will take to build digital public services Nigerians can trust and use, spanning infrastructure, citizen engagement and artificial intelligence governance.

Olatayo Ladipo-Ajai, Regional Manager for West Africa at Infobip, said Nigerian public institutions should treat the people they serve as a single “citizen customer,” arguing that citizens already experience faster, more transparent service from banks, fintechs and e-commerce platforms and now expect the same from government.
He pointed to Rwanda’s Irembo government services platform and Kenya’s e-Citizen portal as examples of public digital platforms built for that model from the outset, and said Nigerian institutions should build around four pillars: trust, information security, backend scalability, and round-the-clock accessibility across multiple channels, with data held centrally and made interoperable across service providers, including third-party payment processors.

Similarly, Nigerian banks and telecommunications companies have launched artificial-intelligence customer-service pilots with strong internal enthusiasm, only to quietly shelve them months later because no one had mapped the customer data the tools needed or defined who was accountable when the systems erred.

Dr Temitope Oyeleye, CEO of TBO Consulting Group, cited the above example while explaining the pattern of stalled AI pilots is now familiar across Nigerian banks and telcos: a chatbot or customer-service pilot launches to strong leadership enthusiasm, performs well in early demonstrations, then is “quietly shelved” within months because underlying data was inconsistent, no owner was assigned for AI governance, and the project was never tied to a measurable return on investment.

“Nobody had mapped which customer data modelled the actual need, so it kept giving us wrong or generic answers, and nobody had defined who was accountable when it gave a customer the wrong account information,” Oyeleye said, describing the failure mode as “proof-of-concept purgatory.”

Oyeleye argued that organisations should establish strategy, governance and data readiness, and a specific measurable priority, such as cutting average resolution time by 20 to 30 percent, before selecting an AI use case, rather than adopting a tool first and searching for an application afterward.

He separately outlined four organisational capabilities he said must accompany any technology investment for transformation to succeed: people (change management and reskilling), process (redesigning workflows rather than digitising existing ones), governance (clear ownership of data quality and decision rights), and strategy (tying technology to a defined business outcome from the outset).

Taiwo Omolopo, Senior Solution Engineer at Infobip, described a tax-filing use case in which an AI system, restricted by defined guardrails, could handle citizen queries over channels such as WhatsApp, retrieving validated information on tax obligations and directing users to authenticated payment endpoints rather than unverified information circulating on social media.

On responsible deployment, Omolopo said AI systems should draw only from secured, approved data sources and operate within defined guardrails to limit hallucinated outputs, and said outputs need to be auditable so incorrect information can be traced. He cited Nigeria’s National Data Protection Act as the governing framework for use of personal data, and said human oversight is required so AI systems do not operate without a designated overseer.

Ladipo-Ajai added that public-sector AI deployments should disclose to citizens when they are interacting with an AI agent rather than a human, framing that disclosure, and the option to request a human instead, as a form of consent distinct from private-sector norms.

Asked how to justify citizen-experience investment to cost-conscious leadership, Omolopo and Ladipo-Ajai argued the case in terms of “cost to serve”: reducing the number of channels and repeat contacts a citizen needs to resolve a request lowers institutional cost even where the AI investment itself is not offset against the previous cost of provision.

On what should change over the next three years, Oyeleye called for cross-ecosystem collaboration, saying government should shift from a purely policymaking role toward building shared digital infrastructure, citing an in-progress review of the National Data Protection Act and a national AI strategy he said is under development.

Ladipo-Ajai said technology vendors should move from selling point solutions to co-designing outcomes with public institutions from the start.

Ahead of the Nigeria MDA & Financial Sector Summit, taking place on 16 September 2026 at the Abuja Continental Hotel, the panel was convened to explore the opportunities, challenges, and imperatives shaping Nigeria’s digital transformation journey. Moderated by Joyce Akiga, Head of Strategy & Delivery at TBO Integrated Services, the discussion served as a precursor to the summit, which hosted in partnership with Infobip will bring together senior government officials, financial services executives, technology leaders, and key industry stakeholders to advance dialogue on innovation, digital inclusion, and the future of Nigeria’s digital economy.