Joel Ajayi
Director-General of Ibrosoft International Development Foundation (IIDF), Ibrahim Abdullahi Muhammad, has urged the federal government to look into the creation of the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence to contribute to economic development of the nation and gainful employment.
He said this Wednesday in Abuja, during a training organised by the Foundation for FCT teachers, business executives and residents on unlocking the powers of AI to boost personal growth, enhance productivity and create new income opportunities.
Addressing reporters at the training, Muhammad said, with the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence, Nigeria will compete with other countries and even become one of the developed countries.
He said: ‘We are here for artificial intelligence training for personal growth and wealth creation. AI is changing how we do things as well as improving how we do our activities. So we organised this event particularly to contribute to personal, national and international development. For this event the participants will know what AI is. As you know AI, that is artificial intelligence, is the capacity and ability of a machine or a computer device to do activities usually done by human.
“So if they know what AI is, the examples of AI application and how they can use these AI tools, they will know what is ChatGPT. ChatGPT is one of the powerful and advanced generative artificial intelligence application software developed by OpenAI in 2022.
“Using ChatGPT, you can generate powerful, outstanding and special prompt things that can ordinarily take you hours, days, months or years. With ChatGPT, you can just generate these things. You see, it will give you time to do other things that will be useful, so AI is very, very useful and important.
“So we selected some teachers, professionals and leaders of organisations. If a student at the age of 10, 12 know about AI, I think it will not be too useful for them because at the level of their skills and knowledge, they will not be thinking deeply, coherently and logically. They will be using AI.
“I believe teachers and leaders, administrators and other CEOs, chief executive officers of organisations, because of time, their busy schedules, if they are using this AI, it can really contribute to their personal activities significantly. So we focused on selecting some teachers. You know, education is a powerful facility you can use to bring development in any country.
“So believe me, if these people know the knowledge, they have the skills, they will just pass the knowledge and the skills that they have to students. People use Bolt, Uber and other apps. These people come to our country and are generating billions of Naira monthly using these powerful apps and software. If students have the knowledge and skills, they can become creative and innovative. If they start doing it, they will be useful to themselves personally, it will also be useful to the society where they live.”
He added: “I think government can also create Federal Ministry of Artificial Intelligence. So if government creates the ministry, we will have a minister and the ministry will focus particularly on generative artificial intelligence. So believe me, you will see how Nigeria will compete with Africa and globally. Believe me, one day, Nigeria will become one of the developed countries.
“However, AI has limitations, that is why we call it artificial intelligence. Without human intelligence, there will not to be artificial intelligence. You just give it bit by bit. You schedule the things. You cannot say let it generate the complete entire activity for you. Let it generate this part for some seconds, for some minutes, and keep it aside then put them together.
“Some AI has the limitation of doing some things. We have ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Pi, etc. So if a certain AI app did not perform the tasks that you want it to perform, just get what you want from it and go to others.
“If the federal government is going to establish or create a Federal Ministry of Artificial Intelligence, the ministry will have Departments and Commissions and the department is going to regulate AI use by students and Nigerians. You know, AI can create fake contents, fake videos, fake information. However, you can still use AI to verify whether this one is real or this one is fake.
“I believe that AI will contribute to more employment. If you say you cannot use AI, that is when you can lose your job. Use AI. It’s not only for those that are in computer science, it is applicable to all aspects of our life. So start using AI and think about the businesses that AI can provide. Believe me, you will get more money than even working in other aspects or other ministries.”
Speaking with our reporter, a Primary 5 teacher at LEA Primary School, Life Camp, Abuja, Mrs Juliana Chijoke John, said she learned a lot from the training as a participant and that it will help her in the teaching profession.
She said: “I’m thankful to God for making me to be here today to attend this programme because I know that it’s going to enhance me as a primary school teacher, and also help me to teach the children. Actually, some of my pupils in the school know about AI. They’ve been going through Google and they are aware of AI and internet in general.
“So, this AI training is actually going to help us to teach the children, to encourage them, to educate them to understand what AI is all about, and also enhance the teaching process in terms of critical thinking. It’s going to also develop children. It will also help them to assess a lot of things.
“Maybe there are some things they actually do not understand. So, this teaching today is going to help us as primary school teachers. If they have been taught the advantages of AI, the benefits of AI, they will also be reading their books and also work with it. It will make them not to be lazy.
“My advice to other teachers is that despite the fact this artificial intelligence is being popularised, they should not relent on other things. They should also be using other things to learn, but also to teach the benefits of AI to children so that it will not make them to be lazy.”
Also speaking, Mrs Abdulraheem Kehinde, Primary 3 teacher at LEA Primary School, Life Camp, Abuja, urged the federal and states governments to provide teachers with laptops and other devices for effective teaching, saying technological devices are required in this age.
Similarly, a final year student of Cyber Security at Nile University, Nuhu Alia, said she learned a lot from the training to help her education.
She said: “As the convener said, AI has changed the way things are done. Like ChatGPT. I’m a student, so I use ChargPT a lot. I also use tools like GitHub to help me in coding. It gives you prompts. I have learned how to use smart prompts to get information as a student. I’m exposed to a lot of resources, and I don’t know which one to use.
“The internet space is very vast. So using AI tools will help me get the resources I need for what I need to do as a student. It helps me in my projects, works, and other things. My advice to other students is not to rely solely on AI. Start with what you can do, like build an idea on your own, and then you can give that to AI to polish and finish it.”
On his part, one of the participants, Dr Oluwaseyi Timilehin, the CEO, Medxlearn Ltd, who came in from Lagos for the training, said the knowledge will help him in the medical profession.
The Facilitator, Mr Aminu Shehu, who is the CEO of Alameen Technologies and a consultant for FCT SEB, said artificial intelligence is the future and for Nigerians to embrace it.
