Nigeria, Africa Risk Becoming AI Consumers Without Local Capacity – Microsoft

Nigeria and other African countries risk becoming primarily consumers of artificial intelligence (AI) rather than creators and beneficiaries of the technology unless they urgently strengthen local capacity, infrastructure and innovation ecosystems, Microsoft has warned.

Akua Gyekye, Head of Government Affairs for Africa at Microsoft, gave the warning on Thursday in Lagos, stressing that decisions being taken by African governments, businesses and technology stakeholders today would determine the continent’s ability to capture the economic value of AI.

Gyekye said Africa’s AI debate had evolved beyond whether the continent would adopt the technology, noting that the more important questions now centred on whether African countries could deploy AI responsibly, confidently and at scale while developing capabilities that would enable them to create solutions suited to local needs.

She said the continent must avoid a situation where it relies predominantly on technologies developed elsewhere without building the skills, infrastructure, data ecosystems and institutions required to participate meaningfully in the AI economy.

“The choices Africa makes now will determine whether it captures the value created by AI or simply consumes it,” she said.
According to Microsoft’s Global AI Diffusion Report for the first quarter of 2026, generative AI usage among working-age populations stood at 27.5 per cent in the global North, compared with 15.4 per cent in the global South.

Gyekye said the disparity underscored the growing AI adoption gap between developed and developing economies and highlighted the need for African countries, including Nigeria, to accelerate investments in digital infrastructure, skills development and responsible AI deployment.

She argued that African governments and businesses should have the flexibility to select from frontier, open and specialised AI models based on their specific requirements rather than becoming locked into a single technological pathway.

According to her, sustainable partnerships should go beyond the deployment of existing AI products to focus on building long-term African technological capabilities.

“The strongest partnerships will be those that build enduring African capability,” she said.
She identified cloud infrastructure, technical expertise, cybersecurity and responsible AI practices as some of the areas where technology providers could support African governments, businesses and institutions in developing stronger AI ecosystems.

The Microsoft executive also pointed to the scale of the economic opportunity available to the continent if AI is deployed inclusively and effectively.
She cited estimates by the African Development Bank indicating that inclusive AI development and deployment could contribute as much as $1 trillion in additional gross domestic product across Africa by 2035.

Gyekye said the projection demonstrated both the potential economic benefits of AI and the significant cost Africa could incur if it failed to develop the capacity needed to participate actively in the technology’s development and value chain.

For Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and one of the continent’s major technology markets, the development of local AI capacity could have implications across sectors including financial services, healthcare, agriculture, education, manufacturing, government services and telecommunications.

Beyond adoption, the ability to develop AI applications that reflect Nigeria’s economic realities, languages, regulatory environment and social needs could help local businesses create new products and services while reducing dependence on imported technological solutions.

Gyekye further stressed that cybersecurity must remain central to Africa’s AI strategy as the technology becomes increasingly integrated into critical areas of the economy.

She noted that AI was already becoming more closely connected to government services, financial systems, healthcare and critical infrastructure, making the protection of AI systems, data and digital networks an increasingly important component of responsible adoption.

She warned that expanding AI adoption without corresponding investments in cybersecurity and governance could expose institutions and users to new risks, particularly as more sensitive data and essential services become digitised.

Gyekye also highlighted efforts aimed at making AI more inclusive across the continent, particularly through initiatives focused on African languages.

She cited LINGUA Africa, a $5.5 million initiative involving the Masakhane African Languages Hub, Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Google.org.

According to her, the initiative addresses one of the major barriers to inclusive AI adoption in Africa by supporting the development of AI capabilities that can better understand and serve African languages and communities.

She said improving the representation of African languages and contexts in AI systems would be critical to ensuring that the benefits of the technology were not restricted to populations that primarily use globally dominant languages.

The Microsoft executive’s comments come as governments and businesses across Africa increasingly explore the use of generative AI to improve productivity, automate processes and expand access to digital services.

However, the continent continues to face challenges including inadequate digital infrastructure, limited computing capacity, shortages of specialised technical skills, uneven internet access and concerns around data governance and cybersecurity.

For Nigeria, overcoming these constraints will be critical if the country is to move from being a major market for imported digital technologies to becoming a significant developer and exporter of AI-driven solutions.

Gyekye maintained that Africa’s AI future would ultimately depend on the choices made now, particularly the willingness of governments, businesses, technology companies, research institutions and development partners to prioritise long-term capacity building alongside technology adoption.

The objective, she suggested, should not merely be to increase the number of Africans using AI, but to ensure that African countries possess the infrastructure, expertise and innovation capabilities required to shape the technology and capture a meaningful share of the economic value it creates.