Why Nigeria must deploy AI in agriculture to achieve food sufficiency – Abel Aboh

Data and AI Leader, Mr Abel Aboh urged Nigeria to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to address some of its current challenges even as he highlighted some strategies that can be adopted. 

Aboh gave the charge on Saturday during the July edition of the Nairametrics webinar themed, ‘How to Make Money Using AI: Value Creation for Businesses, Entrepreneurs, and Government.’ 

According to him, Nigeria would need to deploy in the area of agriculture to achieve food sufficiency and this should be one of the immediate actions that the government needs to take. He added that this would require setting up a team of the right people to solve the problem using AI. 

Addressing sectorial problems 

While noting that the present administration through the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, has been doing a lot in the area of AI, he said a lot still needs to be done in using the technology to solve the country’s problems, looking at it sector by sector. 

“Let’s say we take 10 sectors in the economy and take 10 problems in each of the sectors. What we need to do is to get the right team of people to solve those sectorial problems. This can be in sports, financial services, education, and others. 

“We’re not going to solve the problems 100% but what we do is that as we’re solving these problems, we’re learning lessons, but more importantly, fundamentally, we are collecting the data that is required,” Aboh said. 

Data literacy 

To make headway with AI, the technology expert said Nigeria would also need to increase data literacy levels, especially among the people working in government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.  

According to him, data is very crucial in AI and people in government must be data literate enough to ensure data privacy and data security.  

“We need to evolve our people and start talking to them about data literacy. We need to start talking to them about data privacy as well. I mean, there are a couple of stories that came up about the NIN, that people say they can buy off the shelf. You know, they can get people’s private data. 

“So, we need to start talking about data security. These are the whole bandwagon that enables you successfully to deliver data and AI successfully,” he said. 

Partnering with other African countries 

In addition to that, Aboh said Nigeria would also need to partner with other African countries to be able to address some of its challenges. While noting that only Nigerians can solve Nigerian problems, the AI leader said a strategic collaboration with other African countries would fast-track the journey for Nigeria.  

Emphasizing the need for the partnership, Aboh said: 

“We need to be forward in working with the African countries. I always say to people, that African data and African people are quite unique, and what we don’t simply want to do is to go and take something outside of Europe or Asia and apply it to ourselves.  

“So, we need to be leading the charge and working with other African countries in order to build the right strategy that works for Africa.” 

Aboh added that Nigeria has abundant of people with the right skills,  expertise, and exposure that could help the country navigate the AI revolution. He said the government would also need to collaborate with those individuals to achieve its goals. 

Click here to watch the full video of the webinar, where other experts spoke on AI opportunities in Nigeria.