Nigeria’s AI initiative sparks tech employment growth

As Nigeria continues to build its technology workforce, the country is set to emerge as a key player in the global digital economy, leveraging local talent to drive innovation and economic growth.

Nigeria’s burgeoning technology sector is turning inward to develop the country’s first artificial intelligence, with local startup Awarri chosen to lead the project.

According to local media, this ambitious project is not only a technological achievement but also a major employment opportunity. Awarri has recruited over 600 fellows from the federal government’s 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) program to work as data collectors in developing a large language multilingual model (LLM).

Job creation in tech space

In an X announcement on July 24, Bosun Tijani, the minister of communications, innovation, and digital economy, emphasized the Nigerian government’s commitment to fostering job creation in the tech space and highlighted the rapid growth of the Awarri team.

Tijani has also underscored the broader vision behind this initiative. As part of the ongoing technical skills training, the government has committed to facilitating jobs for the 3MTT fellows, which is in line with President Bola Tinubu’s promise to create a million tech jobs within the first two years of his administration.

The minister highlighted the successful placement of many fellows from the first cohort of the program into internship roles across the country. The 3MTT program is a cornerstone of the Nigerian president’s “Renewed Hope” agenda, which aims to build Nigeria’s technical talent backbone to power its digital economy.

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The program started with 30,000 Nigerians, representing 1% of the three million target, and has now expanded to 270,000 participants in its second cohort.

Awarri’s contributions

Awarri, which began its journey with 120 AI jobs, has quickly established itself as a comprehensive technology company. It offers a full-stack service that includes data gathering, model creation and AI application development. The startup’s mission aligns with the Nigerian government’s broader goals to position the country as a significant player in the global AI landscape.

The LLM developed by Awarri is set to become a landmark in Nigeria’s AI capabilities. The project, officially launched by Tijani at the end of a four-day AI workshop in Abuja in April, is a collaborative effort involving Awarritech, DataDotOrg, the National Information Technology Development Agency and the National Centre for AI and Robotics.

The LLM aims to enhance language representation in existing data sets by being trained in five low-resource languages and accented English, ensuring inclusivity and broad applicability.