The Nigerian government and technology stakeholders have been urged to train and develop more local talent in artificial intelligence (AI) innovations to build unique solutions tailored towards solving the country’s technological challenges.

Software engineer and AI expert with Upperlink Limited, Kehinde Opara, stated in Lagos, while speaking on the need to leverage local talents and expertise to solve Nigeria’s problems and be on par with developed economies.

“It costs us much to import and maintain the tech solutions we use in Nigeria. If we produce most of the tech products we use in the country, it will impact our tech sector, economy, and international reputation,” he said.

Opara commended the Federal Government for the Sept. 2025 National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (NAIS) document it developed, aimed at harnessing AI’s transformative capacity to address pressing socio-economic conundrums, accelerate economic growth, and pivot the nation into a new epoch of technological empowerment.

The AI expert also commended the Federal Government for introducing new Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cybersecurity, Software Engineering, and Networking as part of a broader plan to modernise Nigeria’s technical education system.

“The future is bright if we act boldly now as Nigerians and Africans. Africa does not need permission to lead in AI. We just need to build it, and now,” he said.

Opara noted that AI was radically transforming app development and software engineering across Africa by automating repetitive tasks, boosting productivity, and enabling engineers to focus on higher-level innovation.

“In Nigeria and Africa, where talent is abundant but resources can be limited, AI levels the playing field, allowing solo engineers or small teams to build effective products at a fraction of the time and cost it would take in previous years,” he said.

He further said that AI-driven software was the engine behind Africa’s current digital explosion.

He cited Nigerian local tech solutions in fintech, agritech, healthtech and logistics built from AI technologies, adding that the innovations are not copies of the Western models, but were built for Nigeria’s unique challenges.

Opara stressed that Nigeria and Africa must treat AI as critical infrastructure, just like electricity or the internet.

In light of this, he advised investments in data creation and ownership, building of affordable compute infrastructure prioritising AI education across all levels of education, creating enabling technology policies, and fostering pan-African collaboration.

Opara further advised that, for technology stakeholders, techpreneurs and tech enthusiasts to leverage AI to solve Nigeria’s local problems, they must master the relevant AI tools, focus on problems they live every day, build strong cyber and digital communities, learn how to sell and communicate their technology vision, and contribute to open source and document their journey.

He stated that technical brilliance alone would not get funding or users for the task, but collaboration, teamwork and good polices.

“In five years, by 2031, Nigeria and Africa will no longer be behind in AI technologies. We will be leading in applied AI for emerging markets. We will have multiple African-founded AI unicorns, homegrown foundation models trained on African data and languages, widespread AI agents running small businesses,” he said.