Michael Peter, The Sight News
Abuja: The Federal Government says it is looking into including Artificial Intelligence and coding in Nigeria’s educational system.
This it says, will set young Nigerians on an early path of ingenuity in ICT.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja on Thursday on the occasion of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day 2018, the Communication Minister, Adebayo Shittu said there was no alternative to encouraging the Nigerian youths to be digital literate in a world where ICT is taking center stage.
According to the Minister, technology holds the promise of transformation as governments around the world increasingly rely on the internet for governance and delivery of social benefits.
He reiterated government’s commitment towards supporting stakeholders in the ICT sector to create and strengthen a national Artificial Intelligence ecosystem for sustainable development.
Shittu however maintained that, to realize the true potentials of Artificial Intelligence, apprehensions around Job loss and security of networks and ICT need to be resolved.
“Private sector should take the lead in the field of artificial intelligence, sponsoring of research activities in these areas should be likened to oil exploration.
“The field of artificial intelligence presents a crucial building block for furthering the human cause from its use in self-driving cars and medical diagnosis to strategic planning and game theory and optical character recognition.
“However, giving the unprecedented technological unemployment it can bring to existing jobs and structure, organizations need to invest in agile infrastructure that can adapt to the growing use of the technology to balance the disequilibrium due to disruptions in the economy”, he said.
He further called on Parents to allow their children and wards to take coding classes and buy them educational toys that are capable of stirring up the ingenuity in them.
This year’s Telecommunication day is focused on how Artificial Intelligence can accelerate the United Nations sustainable Development Goals.
