By Boluwatife Oshadiya | July 9, 2026
KEY POINTS
- Nigeria ranks 1st in Africa and 38th globally on the 2026 Global Index on Responsible AI (GIRAI), scoring 45.93 out of 100
- Country climbed 42 places from 80th position in the inaugural 2024 edition, recording one of the most dramatic improvements among all 135 countries assessed
- Strongest performances recorded in Trust & Safety (29th globally) and Inclusion & Diversity (35th globally), while AI in Public Service remains the weakest dimension at 79th globally
- Nigeria’s 3MTT programme, National AI Strategy (NAIS 2025), and children’s data protection frameworks were specifically cited as global bright spots by the index
- Norway leads the global ranking with a score of 75.3, while the average global score remains around 35 — exposing a governance implementation gap worldwide
MAIN STORY
Nigeria has secured the top position in Africa and placed 38th out of 135 countries worldwide on the second edition of the Global Index on Responsible AI (GIRAI) 2026, released on July 8, 2026, in Geneva, Switzerland — a result that represents one of the steepest climbs recorded in the index’s short history and announces Africa’s most populous nation as a serious contender in the global conversation on ethical AI governance.
The country scored 45.93 out of 100, a figure that stands in stark contrast to the 7.21 it posted when the inaugural GIRAI edition was published in 2024, at which point Nigeria ranked 80th globally. That improvement — 42 positions in two years — places Nigeria well above the African regional average of 21.79 and above approximately 72 percent of all countries assessed in the index. Egypt followed as the second-ranked African country on the continent.
The GIRAI is published by the Global Center on AI Governance and is regarded as one of the world’s most comprehensive evidence-based assessments of how countries are translating responsible AI commitments into actual policy, institutions, and outcomes. The 2026 edition assessed 135 countries and jurisdictions across more than 68,000 verified data points, covering five core dimensions: Inclusion and Diversity, Ethics and Sustainability, Labour and Skills, Trust and Safety, and AI Use in Public Service.
The announcement was issued by the Office of the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, through his media aide Isime Esene. Nigeria’s Minister was also listed as a featured speaker at the Geneva launch event alongside Microsoft’s Chief Responsible AI Officer Natasha Crampton and the Chief Digital Officer of the United Nations Development Programme, Robert Opp — a detail that underscores how far Nigeria’s AI governance narrative has travelled on the world stage.
THE ISSUES
A Nation Racing Against Its Own Gaps
Nigeria’s ascent in the GIRAI is real, but the numbers carry important nuance. The country’s strengths are concentrated in policy design and regulatory frameworks — areas where committed government action, well-drafted legislation, and clear national strategies can yield measurable results quickly. Its weaknesses are in implementation: applying those frameworks to actual public services, procurement, and disclosure at the level where citizens interact with AI systems day to day.
In Trust and Safety, Nigeria scored 63.45 — ranking 29th globally and first on the continent — reflecting the strength of the Nigeria Data Protection Act, the General Application and Implementation Directive (GAID) 2025, and the country’s framework for consumer protection and redress. These instruments are substantive. The Data Protection Act established the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), which in 2024 levied a landmark $220 million fine against Meta for data violations — the most significant AI-era enforcement action on the African continent.
In Inclusion and Diversity, Nigeria scored 52.06, ranking 35th globally and first in Africa, with credit given for gender equality commitments and cultural and linguistic diversity provisions. In Ethics and Sustainability, the country scored 49.63 — 37th globally and second in Africa — bolstered by its fairness and non-discrimination frameworks and transparency requirements. Labour and Skills came in at 40.85 (62nd globally, 10th in Africa), supported largely by AI literacy programmes and reskilling initiatives.
The most glaring gap is AI Use in Public Service, where Nigeria scored only 23.65, placing 79th globally and 10th in Africa. This dimension assesses whether governments are deploying AI transparently in their own operations, whether procurement processes are accountable, and whether public institutions can be held responsible for the AI systems they operate. Nigeria’s policy frameworks say the right things; its public sector has yet to demonstrate that it is living them.
A second structural tension is visible in the Enabling Conditions category — a composite pillar that includes rule of law, digital infrastructure access, cybersecurity maturity, and environmental performance. Nigeria’s score of 41.76 in this pillar reflects mixed results: strong data protection but challenges in broader infrastructure provision and governance quality. This matters because AI governance cannot outrun the conditions that shape whether citizens can actually access and benefit from AI at all.
A third concern is the environment. The GIRAI 2026 report identifies the environmental impact of AI — its energy and water consumption, its carbon footprint — as one of the most under-addressed dimensions in responsible AI governance globally. Nigeria, like most of the Global South, has not yet developed a serious framework for measuring or managing the environmental cost of its growing AI ecosystem. As the country scales its digital ambitions, this gap will widen unless deliberately addressed.
WHAT’S BEING SAID
Reaction from government has been swift and emphatic. The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, described the ranking as validation of a deliberate policy direction.
“This recognition is a testament to Nigeria’s deliberate efforts to build an AI ecosystem that is inclusive, responsible, and aligned with our development priorities. We believe that Africa must not only participate in the AI revolution but also contribute meaningfully to shaping how these technologies are governed and deployed globally,” he said in a statement released through his office.
The minister added that the government’s focus remains on creating the infrastructure, talent, and policy environment needed for AI to deliver tangible benefits for Nigerians, in support of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s vision of building a one trillion dollar economy.
The statement also noted that Nigeria’s progress was driven by several deliberate initiatives under the ministry’s umbrella: “Under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and through the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Nigeria has accelerated initiatives to develop a National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (NAIS), strengthen digital public infrastructure, invest in digital talent, establish governance frameworks for emerging technologies, and deepen international partnerships to ensure that the benefits of AI are widely shared and responsibly deployed.”
Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has consistently framed Nigeria’s AI trajectory in terms of sovereignty and self-determination. Speaking at the AI Summit Nigeria 2026 in Abuja earlier this year — hosted by Microsoft in collaboration with NITDA and MTN — Inuwa argued that the real measure of Nigeria’s AI ambition would be whether the country builds rather than borrows.
“We must become creators of intelligence rooted in our realities and responsive to our aspirations. We must build local talent, strengthen research ecosystems, and create an enabling environment where Nigerian and African solutions can thrive,” he said.
On trust as a prerequisite for sustainable AI adoption, Inuwa was equally direct: “Without public trust, AI adoption will be stalled. Without accountability, innovation will not scale sustainably, and without transparency, citizens will lose confidence in the systems designed to serve them.”
The NITDA DG has also stressed that the success of any policy will ultimately be judged not by index scores, but by impact on ordinary lives: “Progress means moving from ambition to implementation, from pilot projects to scale, and from isolated innovation to systematic transformation.”
At the launch of the Nigeria AI Readiness Assessment Methodology report in Abuja earlier in June 2026 — a joint initiative with UNESCO — Tijani, represented by Dr. Bunmi Ajala, National Director of the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR), placed the country’s AI agenda in a broader development context: “AI is affecting productivity across virtually every sector of the economy. For Nigeria, the implications are profound because we are seeking to accelerate economic growth, improve public service delivery, create jobs, and expand access to opportunity and enhance national competitiveness. AI presents us an unprecedented opportunity to leapfrog traditional constraints and unlock new possibilities.”
Dr. Tijani also made clear at the University of Jos convocation ceremony in January 2026, where he announced the National AI Centre of Excellence, that Nigeria’s posture in the global AI order would have to be an active one: “AI is built on numbers, and Nigeria has the numbers. We are too big a country not to participate meaningfully in artificial intelligence,” adding that the country was determined “not to remain a passive consumer of artificial intelligence technologies or a rule-taker in emerging global AI governance frameworks.”
The European Union has taken note. Ms. Ikram Tolba of the EU Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, speaking at the UNESCO RAM report launch, confirmed that Brussels intends to deepen its AI collaboration with Abuja: “Nigeria’s AI readiness score of 47.9 and ICT regulatory maturity ranking of 92 indicated strong potential, with infrastructure and access to capital remaining major challenges.” The EU, she noted, would support Nigeria through regulatory partnerships, research cooperation, and access to Europe’s high-performance computing infrastructure.
WHAT’S NEXT
Several developments will test whether Nigeria can consolidate its GIRAI gains and translate rankings into real-world impact:
- 3MTT Programme Scale-Up: NITDA has reported a 99.6 percent completion rate in assessments under the 3 Million Technical Talent programme, with plans to expand into advanced AI and data science training through the DeepTechReady programme and a new five-year EU partnership. The agency is targeting a national digital literacy rate of 70 percent by 2027 and 95 percent by 2030, while aiming to place Nigeria among the world’s top 25 nations in AI, robotics, blockchain, and advanced manufacturing.
- N-ATLAS Indigenous Language Model: Nigeria has launched N-ATLAS, a multilingual large language model developed by NCAIR at the United Nations General Assembly, covering over 400 million training tokens across five Nigerian language varieties. Expanding and refining this model will be critical to ensuring AI reflects local realities rather than imported foreign data.
- Public Sector AI Deployment: The weakest dimension in Nigeria’s GIRAI profile — AI Use in Public Service, scored at 23.65 and ranked 79th globally — will require deliberate attention. Government ministries, departments, and agencies will need measurable frameworks for disclosing where and how AI is used in public decision-making. NITDA’s Digitalisation in Government Community, now covering over 100 MDAs, may serve as the implementation vehicle.
- GIRAI Third Edition: The Global Center on AI Governance is expected to publish future editions of the index on a biennial or annual basis. Nigeria will need to sustain implementation momentum, not just policy announcements, to maintain and improve its position. The gap between Nigeria’s policy scores and its public service AI scores will be the primary area of scrutiny.
BOTTOM LINE
The Bottom Line: Nigeria’s leap from 80th to 38th in the GIRAI is not an accident — it is the output of a coherent, multi-year digital governance push that has produced real frameworks, real legislation, and real training programmes at scale. But the index also reveals, with unusual precision, where that ambition runs out: in the government’s own use of AI, where transparency, procurement accountability, and public-sector disclosure remain underdeveloped. Africa’s top-ranked AI governance nation now faces a harder challenge than climbing a ranking — it must govern AI in practice, not just on paper.
Sources: Global Index on Responsible AI 2026 (global-index.ai); Official statement from the Office of the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy; Leadership Newspaper; The Sun Nigeria; Channels Television; BusinessDay; Technology Times; NITDA; News Agency of Nigeria.
