Governance and technology stakeholders have urged Nigeria to anchor its Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption on governance and quality enterprise leadership to compete as a major player in the AI-driven global economy.
They made the call on Tuesday in Lagos at the Centre for Enterprise Governance (CEG) Third Biennial Corporate Governance and Enterprise Development 2025 Conference.
The event had the theme: ” Redefining Enterprise Leadership in a Changing Nigeria: Artificial Intelligence, Protectionism and Governance in Focus”.
The Founder of CEG, Adeyinka Hassan, said that 78 per cent of companies worldwide had already adopted AI, with nearly half of the figure using it to harness big data.
Hassan said the challenge lied in the fact that while the world was moving at a high speed, Africa was not.
He said that further delay would cause a digital divide and result in economic gulf.
“This conference is a call to leadership and a call to action, as leadership today is not about titles but about adaptive intelligence – the courage to embrace technology without losing our humanity.
“The choices we make now will decide whether we remain spectators in the AI-driven global economy or rise as architects of Africa’s prosperity,” he said.
Olatokunbo Talabi, Secretary to Ogun State Government, said that effective governance remained the bedrock for enterprise development.
He said that no matter the power of AI or the trends in global trade, without a transparent, accountable and responsive governance, enterprise leadership would not thrive.
Talabi stressed the need to strengthen institutions, promote regulatory clarity, and embrace ethics.
“Enterprise leadership is becoming a demand in Nigeria, and the role of collaboration in this is really what I want to expressly talk about.
“I tell you that Ogun State Government is ready and willing to work with people that can take us into the next level,” he said.
Kashifu Abdullahi, Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency, said the Federal Government had a data governance structure in place – the data protection regulation.
He said that Nigeria was working to create laws and regulations to help to build its hyperscale data centre and position the country as a hub for data centre and AI infrastructure in Africa.
He, however, said there was the need to build digital technology sovereignty to enhance data control and minimise data breaches.
“We work with the big techs and startups to design and govern AI and other emerging technologies because we don’t want it to be like when social media started and people were saying social media was an ungoverned space.
“Already, we have done about three stakeholder engagement on it to help to make sure that whatever is illegal offline, is also illegal online.
“This is something we need to work together with you all, the private sector, the academia, the startups, because there are things you can do and government cannot do, and there are things government can do, you cannot do,” he said.
Bolanle Oladejo, Head, Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, University of Ibadan, said that AI adoption was on the rise and transforming various sectors and driving innovation across Nigeria.
She said in the next decade, successful Nigerian enterprise leadership would be shaped by those who could navigate complexity and create value across multiple dimensions simultaneously.
Oladejo recommended development of a comprehensive Al regulatory framework, provision of tax relief and innovation grants to address cost barriers, and establishment of oversight mechanisms for ethical AI.
“Looking forward, I envision a Nigeria where Al-powered enterprises lead Africa, potentially unlocking up to $100 billion in annual economic value from generative Al alone, with Nigeria’s Al market growing to $434.4 million by 2026.
“The quality of enterprise leadership in this transformational moment would determine whether Nigeria emerges as a major economic power in the Al-driven global economy or remains trapped in cycles of unrealised potential,” she said.
Olayemi Keri, Independent Non Executive Director, First City Monument Bank, said that Al would not guarantee success or failure.
She said that its outcomes would depend on how well organisations would prepare and integrate it.
Keri said that companies that would tie Al directly to business imperatives and invest in strong data governance would see returns.
“For Nigeria, this means Al adoption should not be about chasing global trends but about building wisely step-by-step, investing in infrastructure, governance and context-specific applications that solve real problems.
“Decisions about AI adoption are moral as much as they are technical, and this is why we must ground Al adoption in governance principles of fairness and ethics,” she said.()
