Nigeria has published 20 peer-reviewed artificial intelligence (AI) research papers in less than two years, its first contributions credited to local institutions.
The results follow the launch of the Nigerian Artificial Intelligence Research Scheme (NAIRS) in early 2024 by the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy. The initiative is funded through the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
Olubunmi Ajala, National Director of the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, said the programme was created after officials found that while thousands of AI papers had been authored by Nigerians abroad, none were tied to universities or laboratories in the country.
“We discovered thousands of AI papers authored by Nigerians, but none tied to Nigerian institutions,” Ajala told TechCabal at GITEX Nigeria in Abuja on Monday. “That is why NAIRS was created, to give Nigerian researchers, both at home and in the diaspora, a structured platform to produce Nigeria-led AI research.”
More than 4,000 researchers applied to the first NAIRS call, with 45 groups awarded grants of up to ₦5m ($3,400). By August 2025, they had produced 20 papers, including studies on crop disease detection and adaptive traffic management systems.
