Nigeria tops Africa in responsible AI ranking, places 38th globally

Nigeria has been ranked Africa’s leading country for responsible artificial intelligence governance, placing 38th globally in the second edition of the Global Index on Responsible AI (GIRAI).

The country recorded an overall score of 45.93 in the index, which assessed 138 countries on how they are developing and governing AI.

Nigeria was also named a global “Bright Spot” for combining efforts to prepare citizens for an AI-driven economy with legal protections against some of the technology’s potential harms.

Published by the Global Center on AI Governance, GIRAI measures countries across five areas: Inclusion and Diversity, Ethics and Sustainability, Labour and Skills, Trust and Safety, and AI in Public Service.

Why Nigeria ranked highest in Africa

Nigeria’s performance was driven by its attempt to pursue AI adoption and regulation at the same time.

While many countries have focused primarily on encouraging AI innovation and skills development, the report said Nigeria has paired those efforts with legal safeguards, particularly for children and other vulnerable groups.

“With adopted frameworks and active initiatives spanning both AI literacy and children’s protections (and a binding legal instrument underpinning the latter), Nigeria illustrates combined efforts at both preparing young people for AI and safeguarding them from its harms,” the report said.

The researchers highlighted Nigeria’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, adopted in 2025, as one of the policies supporting this approach.

The strategy calls for broader AI literacy across society and proposes a national skills development programme covering teacher training and wider capacity building.

Nigeria’s Three Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme was also singled out for expanding digital skills training across different demographic groups, including young people.

The report described 3MTT as “a programme that targets skill development across demography, including youth,” while noting that Nigeria’s Data Protection Act provides a legal layer of protection as the country expands its digital economy.

Data protection laws helped Nigeria’s ranking

Nigeria’s rules on children’s data were another factor in its performance.

Under the Nigeria Data Protection Act, organisations generally require parental or guardian consent before processing children’s personal data. The law also restricts decisions based solely on automated processing, including decisions affecting children.

The report also pointed to the General Application and Implementation Directive (GAID), which introduces additional safeguards for children and other people who may lack legal capacity to consent to the processing of their data.

For the Global Center on AI Governance, these policies show how governments can expand AI capabilities without treating safety and rights as issues to be addressed later.

Nigeria was also one of five African countries to introduce new AI safety and security frameworks between the first and second editions of the index. The others were Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Libya and Morocco.

AI adoption is moving faster than regulation

Nigeria’s ranking comes against a more difficult global picture.

The report found that responsible AI governance is expanding, particularly across countries in the Global South, but legally enforceable protections remain limited.

“Responsible AI governance is expanding in Global South countries, but binding protections remain scarce,” the report said.

Governments are increasingly publishing AI strategies and ethical guidelines, but fewer have passed laws capable of addressing the risks created by rapidly advancing AI systems.

Those risks include algorithmic discrimination, privacy violations, misinformation, deepfakes, automated decision-making and online harms affecting children.

The gap between adoption and regulation is becoming more urgent as AI tools move deeper into education, workplaces, financial services and public institutions.

Nigeria’s AI adoption is already accelerating

Nigeria’s top African ranking comes as the country pushes to expand AI adoption through national policy, digital skills programmes and new governance frameworks.

A recent Google and Ipsos report found widespread use of AI tools in Nigeria across education, work and entrepreneurship, alongside strong optimism about the technology’s potential.

That rapid adoption makes the governance question more important.

Nigeria’s position in the GIRAI suggests that the country is beginning to build both sides of the equation: preparing more people to use AI while developing rules for how the technology should affect them.

The challenge will be turning those policies into consistent enforcement. AI strategies and data protection laws can improve a country’s ranking, but their real test will be whether they protect people as the technology becomes more deeply embedded in everyday life.