Governance and technology stakeholders have urged Nigeria to anchor its Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption on governance and strong enterprise leadership to compete effectively in the AI-driven global economy.
The call was made on Tuesday in Lagos at the Centre for Enterprise Governance (CEG) Third Biennial Corporate Governance and Enterprise Development 2025 Conference, themed “Redefining Enterprise Leadership in a Changing Nigeria: Artificial Intelligence, Protectionism and Governance in Focus.”
CEG Founder, Mr. Adeyinka Hassan, said that 78 per cent of companies worldwide had already adopted AI, with nearly half of them using it to harness big data. He warned that while the rest of the world was moving at high speed, Africa was lagging behind, a delay that could widen the digital divide and create an economic gulf.
“This conference is a call to leadership and a call to action, as leadership today is not about titles but about adaptive intelligence—the courage to embrace technology without losing our humanity. The choices we make now will decide whether we remain spectators in the AI-driven global economy or rise as architects of Africa’s prosperity,” Hassan said.
Mr. Olatokunbo Talabi, Secretary to the Ogun State Government, described effective governance as the bedrock of enterprise development. He said that regardless of AI’s power or global trade trends, transparent, accountable, and responsive governance remained essential.
Talabi emphasised the need to strengthen institutions, promote regulatory clarity, and uphold ethics. “Enterprise leadership is becoming a demand in Nigeria, and the role of collaboration is really what I want to expressly talk about. Ogun State Government is ready and willing to work with people that can take us to the next level,” he said.
The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mr. Kashifu Abdullahi, said the Federal Government had already established a data governance structure through its data protection regulation. He noted that Nigeria was working on laws to support hyperscale data centres and position itself as a hub for AI and data infrastructure in Africa.
However, he stressed the need for digital technology sovereignty to enhance control and reduce data breaches. “We work with big tech and startups to design and govern AI and other emerging technologies because we don’t want a repeat of the ungoverned social media era,” he said. Abdullahi added that the government had conducted multiple stakeholder engagements to align regulations with both online and offline realities.
Prof. Bolanle Oladejo, Head of the Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Ibadan, said AI adoption was rapidly transforming various sectors and driving innovation in Nigeria. She predicted that enterprise leadership in the coming decade would be defined by those who could navigate complexity and create multidimensional value.
Oladejo recommended a comprehensive AI regulatory framework, tax reliefs, innovation grants to ease cost barriers, and oversight mechanisms to ensure ethical AI use. “Looking forward, I envision a Nigeria where AI-powered enterprises lead Africa, potentially unlocking up to $100 billion in annual economic value from generative AI alone, with Nigeria’s AI market projected to grow to $434.4 million by 2026,” she said.
She stressed that the quality of enterprise leadership would determine whether Nigeria emerged as a major economic power or remained trapped in cycles of unrealised potential.
Also speaking, Mrs. Olayemi Keri, Independent Non-Executive Director at First City Monument Bank, noted that AI was not a guarantee of success or failure. She said outcomes would depend on how well organisations prepared and integrated it.
“For Nigeria, this means AI adoption should not be about chasing global trends but about building wisely step-by-step, investing in infrastructure, governance, and context-specific applications that solve real problems. Decisions about AI adoption are moral as much as they are technical, and this is why we must ground AI adoption in governance principles of fairness and ethics,” Keri said.
