Nigeria is rapidly embracing artificial intelligence (AI), but experts caution that the country’s current lack of robust governance, security, and ethical standards could turn this technological progress into a vulnerability. At the 2025 Africa’s Beacon of ICT Merit & Leadership Awards, Prof. Peter Obadare of cybersecurity firm Digital Encode highlighted the problem of “AI washing,” where companies exaggerate basic automation as AI without genuine innovation or oversight. He stressed that Nigeria risks repeating early internet mistakes by rushing AI adoption without embedding proper security and governance frameworks.
Obadare urged the adoption of global AI standards, such as ISO/IEC 42001 and 38507, to ensure responsible AI innovation grounded in ethics and trust. He emphasized securing AI’s core elements—data, algorithms, and infrastructure—as a critical national security issue. Echoing these concerns, Amrich Singhal, COO of Spectranet, warned that countries benefiting most from AI will be those with trusted systems, not just the most advanced models. He also pointed out AI’s potential harms, including voice cloning, disinformation, and threats to democracy.
Despite Nigeria’s advantage of a young, tech-savvy population and expanding AI use across key sectors like healthcare and agriculture, Singhal criticized the country’s current regulatory framework as insufficient, underfunded, and poorly enforced. Both experts agreed that many global AI failures stem from governance shortcomings rather than technological defects. They cited examples including Microsoft’s racist chatbot, Amazon’s biased hiring AI, and fatal accidents involving autonomous vehicles, underscoring the critical need for oversight and ethical design.
Recent cybersecurity breaches, such as the 2023 OpenAI ChatGPT hack and leaks at DeepSeek, further illustrate risks beyond just flawed algorithms—highlighting how AI systems are built, tested, and deployed. The experts called for urgent attention to AI governance to prevent similar setbacks in Nigeria. The United Nations has also raised concerns, noting that only seven countries currently govern AI policies globally, urging wider government involvement to regulate AI beyond market forces.
Ultimately, Nigeria’s AI ambitions can only be safely realized through comprehensive governance, ethical standards, and security measures, ensuring innovation benefits the nation without exposing it to new threats.
Source: Nairametric