NITDA DG Collocates With Global Leaders, Calls For Inclusive Ai That Expands Human Possibility
By Godson Umejiego, Bureau Chief, The Americas
The Director-General/CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, joined distinguished global leaders and development champions in a high-level dialogue focused on leveraging technology, innovation and social business to advance sustainable and inclusive development. The dialogue was part of sideline events of the ongoing 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly(UNGA 81) in New York, the United States of America.
The foregoing is contained in a press statement e-signed by the Director of Corporate Communications and Media Relations at NITDA, Hajia Hadiza Umar.
The high-level opening session featured President of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly H.E. Dr. Khalilur Rahman; President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste and 1996 Nobel Peace Laureate H.E. José Ramos-Horta; Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bhutan H.E. Dasho Tshering Tobgay; Brazil’s State Minister of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight Against Hunger H.E. Wellington Dias; and Minister of State and Chairman of Pakistan’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority H.E. Bilal Bin Saqib.
The programme also featured 2006 Nobel Peace Laureate, Founder of Grameen Bank and Chair of the Global Committee on Social Business for Sustainable Development Goals Professor Muhammad Yunus. The session was welcomed by Ms. Lamiya Morshed, Executive Director of the Yunus Centre, and co-moderated by Managing Director, Yunus+You – YY Foundation Dominique V. Dauster, and President of the China-United States Exchange Foundation and WHO Goodwill Ambassador James Chau,.
In his keynote, Mallam Abdullahi challenged the global community to look beyond simply expanding access to Artificial Intelligence and focus on building an AI future founded on Representation, Access and Agency. Abdullahi argued that truly inclusive AI must reflect the data, languages, cultures, contexts and values of the people it was designed to serve, while empowering citizens not merely to consume AI, but to understand it, build with it, shape it and create value from it.
“Inclusive AI requires representation and access—and access must mean agency, not just consumption.”
Illustrating the transformative potential of AI, the NITDA DG painted the picture of a Nigerian farmer who might have limited access to agronomists but could have an AI-enabled agronomist in his pocket; helping him understand weather conditions and soil, assess crop challenges and connect to markets. The value of AI, he stressed, should ultimately be measured in better decisions, improved productivity, higher incomes and stronger families and communities.
Said he: “The promise of AI is not that every Nigerian becomes an AI expert. It is that AI can put expertise within the reach of every Nigerian.”
Abdullahi highlighted four foundations underpinning Nigeria’s approach to an inclusive AI future: CONNECT, SKILL, COMPUTE and CREATE. He referenced efforts to expand connectivity through Project BRIDGE, build digital and technical capabilities through DL4ALL, 3MTT and TVET, strengthen sovereign cloud and AI capabilities, and create an enabling environment in which entrepreneurs can develop sustainable solutions to real societal problems.
On digital sovereignty, he emphasised that Nigeria’s objective was not technological isolation, but the capacity to ensure that AI understood Nigerian data, context and nuances, operated within Nigerian law and reflected national culture and values, while remaining open to global investment, models and partnerships.
The NITDA boss further called for shared responsibility across government, business and citizens. Government, he said, must create enabling infrastructure, policy clarity and regulatory certainty while protecting citizens adding Global technology companies should go beyond selling technology to Africa and instead “build with Africa” by investing in compute, transferring knowledge, developing talent, supporting African datasets and languages, and partnering with African innovators and researchers. Citizens, particularly young people, he said, should view AI as a tool for augmenting their capabilities and productivity.
A central element of his message was the need to preserve human accountability as AI became increasingly embedded in decisions affecting health, livelihoods, rights and public services.
His words: “We can delegate tasks to machines. We cannot delegate accountability.”
He concluded by challenging policymakers, technology companies and innovators to ask two questions whenever they developed an AI system namely : Who is represented in the intelligence we are creating? And who has the agency to shape and create value from that intelligence?
His closing message captured Nigeria’s vision for an AI future centred not merely on technological sophistication, but on human progress: “The defining achievement of the AI age should not be that we created machines capable of extraordinary intelligence. It should be that we used that intelligence to unlock extraordinary human possibility; for everyone.”
Through NITDA, Nigeria remains committed to building an AI ecosystem in which representation creates relevance, access creates opportunity, and agency empowers Nigerians to become creators, not merely consumers of the AI economy.
