The Fintech Association of Nigeria (FintechNGR) on Friday pledged to strengthen its continental partnerships through the African Fintech Network to enable Nigerian AI solutions to scale across Africa without unnecessary barriers.
Dr. Stanley Jacob, President of FintechNGR, made the pledge at the InnovateAI 2026 Conference in Lagos, themed “Responsible AI: Beyond Innovation.”
Jacob noted that despite concerns over regulatory uncertainties, infrastructural gaps, and limited patient capital in Nigeria, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven fintech firms are still building globally competitive solutions.
The organization also pledged to deepen national partnerships and engagements to encourage the growth of AI-driven fintechs within Nigeria.
“AI is already transforming Nigeria’s fintech sector.
“It is powering credit scoring, real-time fraud detection, compliance automation, and personalized financial services.
“The association will deepen engagement with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to create structured regulatory frameworks for AI deployment in financial services,” Jacob pledged.
He also pledged that the association would establish a dedicated AI-Fintech working group in 2026 to collaborate with AI in Nigeria on policy advocacy and standards development.
Also speaking at the event, Mr. Ehia Erhaboh, Co-Founder of AI in Nigeria and President of the AI Nigeria Foundation, acknowledged concerns about prioritizing AI amid infrastructural challenges, including electricity deficits.
Erhaboh, however, maintained that Nigeria could not afford to be a passive recipient of global AI systems.
“We must contribute to the training data, governance standards, use cases, and policy frameworks that define AI, especially in African languages and realities,” he said.
According to him, Nigeria’s AI future must be matched with responsibility, noting that the continent’s AI growth would be defined not only by technological sophistication but by trust, fairness, inclusion, and measurable societal impact.
The co-founder said: “Our organization has expanded its grassroots footprint to 22 community hubs across 19 states in the six geopolitical zones.
“The hubs record an average of 25,000 participants meeting monthly to learn and practice AI.
“The foundation’s annual Nigerian AI Landscape Report continues to provide data-driven insights into the evolution of the country’s AI ecosystem, with the 2026 edition underway.”
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, AI in Nigeria Group, Mr. Wole Adeniyi (represented at the event), said innovation without responsibility could undermine public trust and expose societies to risks such as data westernization and algorithmic bias.
Adeniyi identified three pillars for responsible AI in Nigeria: inclusive, accountability, and sovereignty.
According to him, AI systems deployed in Nigeria must reflect local languages and demographics, answer to Nigerian regulators and consumers, and operate within frameworks that protect national data and infrastructure sovereignty.
Regulators, fintech leaders, entrepreneurs, and policymakers at the conference called for stronger collaboration to scale AI responsibly across sectors.
Stakeholders in Nigeria’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) ecosystem, who spoke at various panel discussions, emphasized that responsible innovation anchored on inclusive, accountability, and sovereignty is critical to positioning the country as a global contributor in AI development.
They agreed that while Africa has the youngest population globally and rapidly expanding mobile money markets, unlocking AI’s full potential would require investment in talent development through partnerships between technology firms, universities, and vocational institutions.
The stakeholders urged government, academia, civil society, and the private sector to move from dialogue to coordinated action, stressing that responsible innovation remains the foundation for sustainable growth.
The conference also featured panel discussions, startup exhibitions, and the launch of AI-focused publications aimed at deepening knowledge on prompt engineering and AI governance.
Participants called for sustained collaboration to ensure that Nigeria not only adopts AI technologies but shapes their development in line with African values and realities.
InnovateAI Lagos 2026, in its third edition, was organized by AI in Nigeria.
