Nigeria jumps from zero to 20 AI compute research papers in 18 months

Nigeria has published 20 peer-reviewed artificial intelligence (AI) compute research papers in less than two years, up from zero, in a sign of the government’s push for Nigeria’s entry into the global conversation on AI research.

That jump is thanks to the Nigerian Artificial Intelligence Research Scheme (NAIRS), a federally funded program designed to stop the country from being a mere exporter of talent and instead anchor research output under Nigerian institutions.

Launched in early 2024 by the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, and funded through the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), NAIRS seeks to address a structural gap: while Nigerians abroad were contributing thousands of AI papers, none were credited to local universities or labs, leaving the country with little to show under its own name.

“We discovered thousands of AI papers authored by Nigerians, but none tied to Nigerian institutions,” Olubunmi Ajala, National Director of the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, told TechCabal on the sidelines of GITEX Nigeria in Abuja on Monday. “That’s why NAIRS was created, to give Nigerian researchers, both at home and in the diaspora, a structured platform to produce Nigeria-led AI research.”

Over 4,000 researchers applied to the first NAIRS call, with 45 consortia of academics and startups eventually selected. Each group received grants of up to ₦5 million ($3,400) and a mandate to publish within a year in one of five thematic areas: agriculture, healthcare, education, sustainability, and utilities.

By August 2025, the results were in: 20 peer-reviewed papers, two of them in Springer journals, and several projects already tested in the field. One agricultural consortium used YOLOv8 computer vision models to detect “tomato Ebola,” a disease that wipes out harvests. Another built a smart traffic management system that replaces Nigeria’s fixed 60-second light cycles with an adaptive model, allocating green light time based on real-time traffic flows.

“These are not just academic exercises,” Ajala said. “They are practical solutions tested with real data, designed to solve problems that directly affect Nigerians.”

The initiative is also building long-term infrastructure. Through the AI Collective, a network of over 2,000 Nigerian AI practitioners globally, participants share data, mentor students, and form syndicates to commercialise work.

Ajala said the next phase is to push for patents, biotech applications, and scalable startups. 

“Once strong research outcomes begin to emerge, funding naturally follows,” he said. “Global partners are keen to see how AI can address African realities, and Nigeria is beginning to provide answers.”

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