Bosun Tijani, suddenly appointed by Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu to head the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, has been in the role for six months and is clearly enjoying the job.
In his previous life as a technology investor and advocate, he was an integral part of the community he now oversees. After working in the technology industry in Nigeria and the UK, he founded Co-Creation Hub (CcHub), an influential co-working space and startup with branches across the continent as his incubator.
A community of impatient disruptors, high-tech geniuses, and driven entrepreneurs often found themselves at odds with the vast and lethargic apparatus of the Nigerian state. But if there was any culture shock in Mr. Tijani’s sudden government transfer, the scars are not necessarily obvious.
“I come from the startup community, so I look at everything as an opportunity to build. Even if it’s difficult, it provides an opportunity to overcome it,” he says. african business I met him at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Tijani cites his own background as an explanation for his approach.
“I’m a social scientist, so I look at everything in terms of social systems, and that’s what I enjoy about it. So how do you run a government, knowing that you have to work with civil servants and there’s going to be some pushback?” Are we going to go digital? Do we also have the infrastructure issues to deal with that?”
For Tijani, the answer is to abandon a one-size-fits-all approach, identify sources of support, and build a community of advocates who share a vision. A few days before our meeting, Tijani launched #DevsInGovernment. It is described as “a community of technology talent in the Federal Government of Nigeria who are passionate about technology advancement and digital transformation in government.”
The aim, he explains, is to get buy-in from the public sector.
“If they don’t know what you’re trying to build, they can’t support you.”
Another important factor is that the president, who appointed him without ever meeting him, understands his mission and supports him. The goal is to integrate technology into the very fabric of Nigeria’s society and economy and use it to solve problems, create jobs and build prosperity.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country, with well over 200 million people. Tijani sees Nigeria’s youth, who make up about 60% of the population, as natural allies in building a digital economy. The plan is to equip these young people with the skills to thrive in the digital world.
Technical personnel training
The technical talent development program announced in October 2023 aims to train 3 million people as a first step. Tijani said Nigeria has a strong pipeline of motivated and proactive talent and a technology-enabled workforce with global influence comparable to India, which is a strong example of technology-enabled growth. I believe that it is possible to form
“They had some very strong educational institutions, but again, if you compare then and now when India was educating, the very form of education has changed. The way people learn. has changed. Technology has democratized access to knowledge, so we don’t need to build knowledge the way we do in India,” he says.
The key is to connect academic institutions to their missions and fund research projects that bring technology to life.
“In his first four months as Minister, he has funded 45 research projects on artificial intelligence. The President is so bullish on agriculture that he will announce 10 more agricultural demonstration projects. They want us to farm 500,000 acres of land, and we see the role that technology can play.”
Of course, artificial intelligence is at the heart of the digital conversation, and Tijani feels that even if Africa is left behind first, the continent can still catch up in the most important areas.
“We can leapfrog this application in terms of what actually exists. I think African countries like Nigeria can leverage AI more efficiently than Western countries,” he said, adding that Africa refers to fields such as agriculture and public health where solutions can be built from a “nearly zero” starting point without having to dismantle something first. Already installed.
Shaping the direction of AI
For countries that have lagged behind in joining the party, an important task remains to shape the party’s future direction and structure, and Tijani says he is fully committed to this. “We are also making sure that, while we may be late to the frontier, we are joining the global conversation about how the frontier should be managed. We have a choice. We don’t have one. If it’s built, it’s going to affect us all.”
His agency supports innovations to “drive the transformation from dark data to connected data.” According to him, Nigeria can have a strong global voice on the incorporation of AI data and can also contribute to the safety of AI. Tijani was a guest at the recent AI Safety Summit hosted by the UK government at Bletchley Park.
“I think there are serious security issues that we cannot compromise on. That could be used to bring down the nation. But for those of us living on the continent, we are too afraid of that for good. I don’t think it’s possible not to take advantage of it because it does so much for us. ”
He suggests there should be strong direction on the ground in Africa, supported by extensive regional monitoring. Doing more than this could undermine capacity building at the local level, he says.
“We need to be careful with a continental approach because the thing about AI is that the more you build positions and strategies, the more you build regional capabilities. “If you don’t have one, you may miss out on a lot of benefits,” he warns.
Building local capacity means bringing in local capital, which even in cash-rich Nigeria does not have enough of. This is despite the fact that the technology sector accounted for 18% of Nigeria’s $500 billion economy in the last quarter of 2023.
Tijani says this may be due to the structure of the startup ecosystem. So the startup ecosystem still misses out on integration with the real telecom sector, and once that happens…they will be able to start good businesses and that will attract local investors and local funds. I think it will be. ”
Government digitalization
The federal government itself is also embarking on a digital push. The current challenge is to integrate disparate systems into a comprehensive digital public infrastructure system. The comprehensive system will include a digital identification system and Nigeria’s interbank payment system, which Tijani says has more users than the better-known M-Pesa.
“That’s what we’re doing now. The goal is to create a system that provides standards for technology solutions within government and facilitates interoperability and data sharing between different government solutions.” Once we have the basic foundation in place, it becomes easier to start digitizing various government operations.” As an investor, advocate, and now regulator, Tijani believes in the power of technology. It’s obvious.
“I think we need to learn from African fintech. For example, there is a huge opportunity for technology to be leveraged in education. There is a lot that can be done with technology to support teachers. Agriculture as well. I think this is an area where the power of digital is dormant, and I hope that by the end of the first four years there will be another industry as strong as fintech.”
Observers will be watching closely to see whether the results confirm the optimistic outlook.