Wednesday, January 14, 2026 - Nigeria has been ranked 72nd out of 188 countries in the 2025 Government AI Readiness Index, placing it among the top-performing nations in Sub-Saharan Afri
The index, published by Oxford Insights, assessed 195
governments across 69 indicators grouped under policy capacity, governance, AI
infrastructure, public sector adoption, development and diffusion, and
resilience. The rankings measure how prepared governments are to deploy
artificial intelligence in public service delivery.
Nigeria was ranked fourth within Sub-Saharan Africa, behind
Kenya in 65th place, South Africa in 67th and Mauritius in 71st. In total, ten
African countries appeared in the global top 100.
Oxford Insights described Nigeria as “amongst the highest
ranking countries globally from the continent,” noting that recent policy moves
and investment in the domestic AI sector are beginning to yield results. The
report also highlighted Nigeria’s stronger performance in specific pillars,
ranking 35th globally in policy capacity and 49th in development and diffusion.
According to the report, those scores reflect a growing AI
ecosystem, a larger talent pool and efforts to move beyond strategy into
implementation. Nigeria’s launch of the Nigeria AI Scaling Hub was cited as
evidence of attempts to operationalise AI within government systems.
Despite its relatively high placement within Africa, the
report pointed to constraints common across the region, including AI
infrastructure gaps, limited public sector adoption and deficiencies in
foundational digital and energy systems.
Sub-Saharan Africa ranked last among nine global regions in
the index, with an average score of 28.04, indicating that while Nigeria
compares favourably to its peers, broader structural challenges persist.
Nigeria’s AI agenda has also received renewed political
backing. During the 50th Convocation Ceremony of the University of Jos on
January 7, 2026, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Bosun Tijani
announced the creation of a National AI Centre of Excellence located on the
university campus. Tijani said the initiative signalled a determination that
Nigeria should “not remain a passive consumer of artificial intelligence
technologies or a rule-taker in emerging global AI governance frameworks.”
He added that “AI is built on numbers, and Nigeria has the
numbers,” noting that domestic universities must lead research on locally
relevant datasets and contextual intelligence rather than relying solely on
foreign-trained models.
The report presents Nigeria as a country with clear AI
ambition but uneven execution, with policy advances outpacing adoption in
government services. As more African states formulate AI policies and
innovation hubs, future rankings will depend on how effectively Nigeria
translates strategy into practical deployment.
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