In this subsisting Fourth Industrial Revolution, the central question for policymakers in Nigeria is whether artificial intelligence (AI) will be a bridge or a barrier to social equity.

The National AI Strategy must be more than a technical roadmap; it must be a social contract. To alleviate poverty, AI must be treated as a “Digital Commons”—a resource that belongs to the people and serves the public good.

An inclusive policy focuses on the “bottom of the pyramid”. This means investing in “vernacular AI”—systems trained on local languages—to ensure that the benefits of the digital economy are not the exclusive reserve of the elite.

For youths in rural communities, AI-driven vocational training platforms can provide personalised learning paths, bypassing the crumbling infrastructure of traditional classrooms.

This underscores the critical importance of civic engagement. The government should establish “Community AI Hubs”, where local problems such as water scarcity, local market pricing, open defecation and similar challenges can be addressed using open-source AI tools.

By fostering a culture of “participatory AI”, we can ensure that the technology is used to empower citizens against the systemic pressures of poverty. The national relevance of AI is not found in high-tech laboratories but in the hands of a market woman using a predictive tool to manage her inventory.

 Okeke is a technology governance and public policy advocate. He is the founder of the AEO Foundation.