Gates Foundation says Nigeria must build AI around real-world problems

Nigeria’s artificial intelligence (AI) ambitions should be judged by the lives the technology improves. Uche Amaonwu, Director of the Gates Foundation Nigeria Country Office, believes the number of AI products launched should not be the yardstick.

Speaking at Moonshot on Wednesday in Lagos, Amaonwu argued that Nigeria’s next phase of AI development should focus on practical applications in healthcare, education, agriculture, and public services. The opportunity for Gates Foundation, he noted, is to use AI to extend access to knowledge and economic opportunities for people who have historically been left behind by technological advances.

“We need to be clear-eyed between promise and impact,” he said. “The real test is whether people are going to be able to use these AI solutions and tools, whether there is an institution that can sustain those tools over time, and whether we actually see better outcomes from the use of those tools.”

McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm, estimates that Gen AI could unlock $61 billion to $103 billion of economic value across sectors in Africa. The Gates Foundation 2026 Goalkeepers report argues that AI could become a great equalizer by expanding access to knowledge and services It however, warns that without deliberate intervention, the technology could instead widen existing inequalities.

Amaonwu identified four areas Nigeria needs to get right to move AI from promising products to widespread adoption. Firstly, he mentioned the foundation on which AI applications will run. Nigeria’s fintech growth, he said, was driven by payments infrastructure, regulation, policy, and institutions capable of adopting technology.

“AI is going to need similar foundations for us to be able to replicate what happened with fintech,” he said. “It’s going to need reliable connectivity, trusted data, and systems that can talk to one another. Without those things, we’ll be institutions where every innovator is going to be trying to solve the same underlying ambition problems in the network.”

He also said Nigeria needs to build AI around its own realities. Amaonwu believes that much of the world’s advanced AI models are developed outside Africa and trained on data that may not adequately reflect the continent’s languages or experiences, which could limit the usefulness of that tool.

Trust is another condition for scale. AI systems will handle sensitive information, making data protection and accountability important in sectors such as healthcare. Amaonwu said these safeguards need to be built into AI from the start.

A more local approach could also determine whether AI is useful beyond the demonstration stage. Amaonwu pointed to Nigerian innovators already working on digital health, agricultural advisory tools, and language capabilities for African contexts. However, he stressed that having a working product is only the beginning.

“The hardest questions in my experience when people develop solutions comes after that solution has been frustrated and it works,” he said.

He explained that The Gates Foundation is putting some of this thinking into practice in Nigeria through its support for the Nigeria AI Building Hub, hosted by Lagos Business School in collaboration with Nigerian ecosystem partners. In September, it committed at least $1 billion over two years to expanding access to AI and AI-enabled solutions, opportunities, and knowledge, with the aim of ensuring the technology helps narrow rather than widen gaps between richer and poorer communities.

Amaonwu urged policymakers, innovators, researchers, and investors to connect their efforts rather than trying to build Nigeria’s AI ecosystem independently.

“AI gives us an opportunity to deliver outcomes,” he said. “It allows us to get there more effectively, more affordably, and at a greater scale. For me, that’s the future that is worth building, and it’s the one that we must build together.”

Source: TechCabal (Africa)