Nigeria among World Bank’s top three AI centres in Africa

The World Bank has named Nigeria as one of the top three nations for Artificial Intelligence (AI) activity in Africa.

Nigeria shares the podium with Kenya and South Africa in Africa, according to the World Bank’s latest Africa Economic Update.

The update examines the readiness of Sub-Saharan African countries to harness AI for economic growth and development.

The World Bank said AI activity in the region was heavily concentrated in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, accounting for a significant share of Africa’s innovation ecosystem, venture capital investment, research output and advanced AI applications.

It said the three countries were at the forefront of Africa’s emerging AI ecosystem, admitting most African economies remained at the early stages of adopting and adapting existing AI technologies.

The report noted that 44 per cent of firms surveyed in Nigeria and Kenya were already using AI technologies, compared with 61 per cent of surveyed firms in the United States.

The World Bank also identified Nigeria and South Africa as the continent’s leading centres of AI research.

Between 2000 and 2024, Nigeria produced 4,428 AI-related publications and recorded 64,925 citations while South Africa produced 7,647 publications and recorded 142,024 citations, according to the report.

The bank said Nigeria’s growing position in the AI ecosystem was also reflected in the expansion of its developer community and digital infrastructure.

It noted that AI activity was increasingly concentrated around countries such as Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, while almost half of Africa’s approximately 160 data centre facilities were located in the three countries.

The bank said Africa’s immediate opportunity was not necessarily to compete with advanced economies in developing frontier AI models but to adopt and adapt affordable AI solutions to address local development challenges.

The World Bank also said AI could become a major source of economic growth and job creation if African countries successfully addressed their readiness gaps.

Under an ambitious scenario, the report projects that AI could add up to $1 trillion to Africa’s gross domestic product by 2035 and create between 35 million and 40 million digital jobs.