The first draft of the National Policy for Artificial Intelligence is ready and will soon be transmitted to the Federal Executive Council, Nigeria’s highest decision-making body.
The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mal. Kashifu Inuwa, disclosed this yesterday during a virtual meeting with stakeholders, including the volunteer group.
The draft copy which was co-created by a team from NITDA and 63 industry experts drawn from 351 volunteers’ applications received from Nigeria and abroad after the expression of interest was published in October 2022.
The NITDA’s DG stated that NITDA initiated the process of co-creating the Policy because the Agency strongly believes that there are things it can do as the government’s establishment that the ecosystem cannot do, and there are things the ecosystem can do that which government cannot do, “but together greater things can be achieved.
While stressing the potential of Artificial Intelligence to revolutionise the world, transform industries, and save lives by curing terminal diseases and reversing genetic disorders, Inuwa stated that the NITDA Secretariat will now take over and continue working on the document’s design to get it ready for publication.
He said an implementation strategic plan would be drafted to ensure that the policy achieves the purpose of which it is formulated, adding that the Agency would socialise with its various stakeholders and thereafter send it to the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy for onward passage to FEC for approval.