As the adoption of artificial intelligence accelerates globally, talent management professional Oluwaseyi Akintola warns that Nigeria is at a critical crossroads in the global AI race. Despite having one of the world's youngest populations, she highlights that inadequate digital skills, outdated curricula, and weak infrastructure are leaving many graduates unprepared for an AI-driven economy.
In an interview with The Guardian, Akintola discussed the widening gap between education and industry needs, the risks of job displacement and brain drain, and why AI literacy should become a core part of learning at every level. She also outlined the policy, regulatory, and investment decisions needed to ensure Nigeria becomes an AI creator rather than merely a consumer.
Biggest Gaps in AI Workforce Readiness
Nigeria is falling behind due to multiple factors, according to Akintola. While young Nigerians are curious about AI, the infrastructure to develop these skills is lacking. The problem is deliberate capability-building; over 85% of graduates still lack foundational digital skills, and employers report that degrees alone do not translate into workplace readiness. Job requirements are changing rapidly due to technological advancements, and university curricula have not caught up. Akintola emphasized that Nigeria has a demographic advantage to win in an AI economy, but the window is narrowing. A serious pivot from credential-chasing to applied, practical skill-building is needed urgently.
Is AI Treated as an Economic Issue or a Trend?
Akintola believes AI is still treated more as a trend than an emergency, which is dangerous. Nigeria has an extraordinary demographic asset, but without the right skills, it becomes a liability. The government has made some moves, including a national AI strategy and training targets, but the scale does not match the urgency. For example, targeting 100,000 AI professionals in a workforce of tens of millions is insufficient. Treating AI as an economic emergency would involve restructuring curricula, closing infrastructure gaps in rural schools, investing heavily in infrastructure, and creating deliberate pathways from education to new roles. The rhetoric is ahead of the reality.
Risks for Nigerian Workers
If Nigeria fails to build local AI capacity, the risks are existential. A two-tier economy could emerge, where AI-powered productivity is imported or owned by a thin elite, while most workers compete for shrinking low-skill jobs. Sectors like retail, financial services, agriculture, and logistics are already being restructured by AI. Workers without AI-adjacent skills face displacement. Additionally, brain drain will accelerate as skilled Nigerians are recruited globally. The compounding effects of displacement, stagnation, and brain drain make this an economic emergency.
AI: Threat or Opportunity for Labour Market?
Akintola sees AI as a net opportunity, but only conditionally. Countries that treat AI as infrastructure will come out ahead. For Nigeria, AI can compress decades of productivity growth and extend services to underserved communities. However, if Nigeria remains a consumer of AI built elsewhere, the threat narrative wins. Jobs in customer service, banking, data entry, and basic media production are already being automated. The key is building the replacement layer fast enough. Workforce transformation must be a national priority now.
AI Literacy in Education
Akintola advocates for compulsory AI literacy at primary, secondary, and university levels. At primary level, it should build intuition about what AI is and how to question it. At secondary level, applied literacy should include responsible tool use, bias detection, and basic data concepts. At university, domain-specific fluency should be introduced across all faculties, not just computer science. Without this, students risk using AI as a shortcut without understanding its limitations, producing graduates dependent on a technology they cannot interrogate or improve.
Representing Nigerian Languages and Cultures in AI
AI systems built on Western data marginalize non-Western contexts. For Nigeria, this means local languages being treated as edge cases. Consequences are practical: healthcare AI that ignores local disease patterns, financial AI that cannot assess informal economies, and legal AI trained on foreign jurisprudence. Solutions include investing in local datasets, having Nigerian researchers at the table where models are built, and prioritizing locally adapted AI tools in procurement decisions. If Nigeria does not build itself into the next generation of AI, it will be built without Nigeria in mind.
Regulatory Guardrails for AI
Akintola stresses the need for algorithmic transparency, sector-specific guardrails, mandatory bias audits before deployment in high-stakes contexts, and liability clarity. Nigerian companies are already using AI in hiring and lending without accountability. Regulators like CBN, SEC, and NCC need AI-specific frameworks. The window for proactive regulation is narrow; reactive regulation is more expensive in public trust, economic damage, and lives.
Three Immediate Actions for Leaders
If given five minutes with President Bola Tinubu and state governors, Akintola would recommend: First, declare AI infrastructure a national priority with funded commitments to connectivity in schools. Second, create a Nigerian AI Sovereign Fund to back homegrown startups and local dataset development. Third, mandate that every federal university produce a domain-specific AI curriculum within eighteen months, tied to funding. The demographic window is not permanent; the time to convert that asset into AI capability is now.
