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Enugu State in southeastern Nigeria says it is planning an artificial intelligence institute intended to prepare graduates for roles in global digital markets. Arinze Chilo-Offiah, the governor’s special adviser on digital economy and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises, who leads the project, frames it within a broader economic argument. “If you look at (diaspora) remittances, they rival what we earn from crude,” he told TechCabal on Tuesday during a visit to his Enugu office. “So the question becomes, what is our real competitive advantage?” He argues that talents, particularly in specialised fields such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and software engineering, offer a clearer path for the digital economy of the state. The plan signals a shift in how subnational governments in Nigeria are thinking about economic development, moving from reliance on physical industries toward exporting digital talent into global markets. The Nigerian federal government, through the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, plans to train 3 million technical talents by 2027. Building a talent pipeline The AI institute is part of the Enugu government’s broader “talent city” framework that integrates training, outsourcing, and infrastructure into a single pipeline, according to Chilo-Offiah. The idea, he shared, is to align education directly with employer demand, so graduates can move into jobs rather than wait for opportunities to emerge. He said the proposed institution would operate as a specialised AI institute with degree-awarding status under the National Universities Commission (NUC), rather than a conventional university. In the interim, it could function as a satellite campus under the Enugu State University of Technology with a provisional licence, before eventually becoming an independent institution. Under this structure, students—including undergraduates from institutions such as the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN)—could transition into approved academic pathways, subject to admission requirements. He said the model would combine the credibility of a degree-awarding institution with the flexibility and practical focus of a specialised training centre. The wider ecosystem begins with a 750-seat business process outsourcing (BPO) centre already under construction, alongside a larger 2,000-seat knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) facility. These centres are expected to handle global contracts spanning software engineering, AI services, and data operations. The proposed AI institute would sit above this layer as an elite training hub modelled loosely on India’s Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Chilo-Offiah. Entry would not follow Nigeria’s traditional university admission system. Instead, candidates will be selected through competitive assessments, with preference given to applicants who already possess foundational technical training. Enugu is also working with the NUC to formalise programme recognition, he said. “This is not another mass university,” Chilo-Offiah said. “It’s for the best of the best.” The goal is a direct pathway between education and employment. Graduates would transition into outsourcing roles tied to international clients, earning global incomes while in Nigeria. The government says it is already engaging foreign companies to secure opportunities for future graduates. A bet on infrastructure and partnerships Physically, the project is based on both refurbished facilities and new infrastructure. A key component is an abandoned digital industrial park located in Nike, Enugu, originally built by the Nigerian Communications Commission but left incomplete due to funding shortfalls. The facility will be handed over to the state government under a long-term agreement in June 2026, according to Chilo-Offiah. Nearby, an existing commercial building is being converted into the BPO hub, while a new 21,000-square-metre “tech hall” is planned to house the AI institute and other advanced facilities, including labs, prototyping spaces, and even residential quarters for founders and researchers. The early phases of the broader ecosystem are estimated to cost about $15 million, covering both capital investment and initial operations, according to a document shown by Chilo-Offiah. However, Enugu is not positioning itself as the sole funder. Instead, the state is leaning heavily on private-sector partnerships. Chilo-Offiah disclosed that Special-purpose vehicles (SPVs) will be created to attract investors and operators, with the government playing more of an enabling role than a controlling one. “I’m not a believer in the government doing everything,” he said. “We want the private sector to run it and invest.” This approach mirrors the structure of emerging outsourcing hubs. Ekiti State, for instance, is building a similar talent outsourcing model, though without a dedicated AI institute. In the BPO project, for example, the state is funding renovations, while private partners such as Norrsken are providing equipment and managing operations. Africa’s AI learning ecosystem Enugu’s push to build an AI university comes as African countries experiment with different models for AI education. In Nigeria, most efforts are still embedded within existing institutions, with programmes at the University of Lagos and the Federal University of Technology, Akure leading the way. Momentum has been building. In October 2025, OpenAI selected the University of Lagos to host its first AI Academy in Africa, offering specialised research and training resources. Launched in April 2026, the initiative is part of a broader network of “University Innovation Pods” (UniPods), where AI drives research and commercialisation. Meanwhile, FUTA—long known for its School of Computing—has emerged as a key hub for the national AI research scheme, anchoring postgraduate AI training in West Africa. Elsewhere on the continent, countries like Egypt, South Africa, and Kenya are building more specialised institutions for artificial intelligence research and training. These efforts reflect a shift toward dedicated AI faculties and applied research centres rather than embedding AI solely within traditional university departments. In Egypt, Al Alamein International University was established in 2020 in New Alamein City as part of the country’s fourth-generation university programme. It places AI, data science, and advanced engineering disciplines at the centre of its curriculum. South Africa’s African Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AfriDSAI) is based at the University of Pretoria and was formally launched in August 2025. The institute focuses on AI research that connects academia with public policy and industry, particularly in areas such as governance, development, and applied machine learning. In Kenya, AI-focused innovation hubs have emerged within universities such as Dedan Kimathi
Read MoreSamasource Impact Sourcing Inc (Sama), a Kenya-based business process outsourcing firm, will lay off over 1,100 employees in Nairobi after receiving notice from Meta that it will terminate a major content and data annotation contract. The San Francisco-headquartered data labelling firm said in a statement it had issued a formal redundancy notice on Thursday to 1,108 workers at its Nairobi delivery centre, most of whom are tied to the now-terminated workstream. The layoffs are expected to take effect later this month, in line with Kenya’s labour laws. The job cuts deal a fresh blow to Kenya’s fast-growing but fragile AI outsourcing sector and underline the volatility of an industry that has positioned Kenya as a critical node in the global artificial intelligence supply chain, but which remains heavily dependent on a handful of large US technology clients like Meta. Sama said it had attempted to engage Meta following the termination notice in a bid to preserve jobs, but the discussions did not yield a reprieve. “As is standard in our industry, client programmes evolve, and we work closely with our partners to manage these transitions responsibly,” said Annepeace Alwala, Sama’s country lead and vice-president for global delivery. “Our immediate priority is supporting our employees through this change and ensuring continuity across our broader operations.” The company said the redundancy process is being conducted in compliance with Section 40 of Kenya’s Employment Act, which governs layoffs, including notification requirements to employees and authorities. While Sama did not disclose the value of the contract, Meta has been one of its most prominent clients, relying on outsourced workers in Nairobi to label and moderate data used to train artificial intelligence systems. The relationship has previously drawn scrutiny from labour activists over working conditions in content moderation and data annotation roles. The layoffs will ripple beyond Sama’s workforce, hitting a segment of Kenya’s labour market that has been actively promoted as a source of digital jobs for young people. Nairobi has in recent years emerged as a hub for “impact sourcing”, a model that employs workers from underserved communities to deliver digital services for global firms. Sama has been one of the most visible players in that ecosystem, marketing itself as an ethical outsourcing partner that provides living wages, medical cover, and mental health support to workers handling often sensitive or distressing content. Alwala said the company would extend support to affected staff, including counselling and transition assistance. “We recognise the significant impact on the team and the local community,” she said. The development raises questions about the sustainability of Africa’s role in the AI value chain, where companies such as Sama, OpenAI contractors, and other outsourcing firms provide the human labour underpinning machine learning systems built by global tech giants. Sama said it would continue focusing on its core business of data annotation and model evaluation, and maintaining standards in data security and responsible AI, even as it navigates one of the largest workforce reductions in its Nairobi operations to date. The Meta contract was one of Sama’s most high-profile engagements in Nairobi, anchoring a large share of its workforce in data annotation work tied to the development of artificial intelligence systems, including the company’s AI-enabled Ray-Ban smart glasses. A recent investigation by Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten, working with Kenyan journalists, shed light on the nature of that work. It found that footage captured by users of Meta’s AI glasses is routinely reviewed and labelled by contracted workers in Nairobi to help train the underlying models, raising questions about privacy, consent, and the global division of AI labour.
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When Abakar Mahamat was completing his Master’s in Information Technology (IT) engineering at ISGA (Institut Supérieur des Génies et des Affaires), Morocco, in 2021, he did not think he would end up building medical kiosks. At first, he tried to build an app that would connect patients to doctors in his home country, Chad, because of the healthcare access gap he found during his research. What stood out to Mahamat was the effort it took for people to get a consultation. Chad has about 0.8 physicians per 10,000 people, far below the global benchmark of 2.5 medical staff per 1,000 people, according to data from the World Health Organisation (WHO). For many patients, getting care means travelling long distances and spending on transport to navigate a system that is physically out of reach. An app felt like a clean fix to bring medicine closer to the people. However, as Mahamat began to sketch what would eventually become Telemedan, the idea changed. An app assumes that patients have smartphones and stable internet connectivity enough to sustain a consultation. In Chad, where internet penetration stands at 13.2%, a purely digital solution might struggle to solve the problem it was built for. “Remote areas in Chad have a very low rate of electrification and connectivity,” Mahamat said. “The Internet is expensive for remote areas, so developing a mobile app for this context was not suitable.” Diagnosis required more than just talking. For doctors to get an accurate diagnosis of a patient, they need to conduct tests such as checking the blood pressure and what the heartbeat sounds like, checking for muffled sounds in the lungs, knowing the body temperature, and the blood oxygen level. “During the teleconsultation, what if the doctors need to know the temperature or the blood oxygenation levels in the patients? An app doesn’t have tools to get that data,” he said, reflecting on the early stages of the idea. In 2021, Mahamat and Ahmed Kotoko launched Telemedan, a solar-powered medical kiosk that connects Chadians in rural provinces to medical doctors. Inside the kiosk Telemedan works like a small clinic, designed to handle consultation and diagnosis of a patient in one place. A patient could walk in, book an appointment to connect with a doctor using video conferencing. According to Mahamat, Chad’s Ministry of Health provides the doctors through a 2022 partnership Mahamat explained that the doctors follow a pre-screening process and are selected through the National Digital Health Program, a government initiative for the effective implementation of digital health tools in the country. “This ensures that the clinicians involved are qualified, aligned with national standards, and integrated into the public health system,” he said. A man using Telemedan’s Kiosk. Image source: Telemedan The kiosk is equipped with a set of medical devices that allow the doctor to gather real-time diagnostic data during the session. These tools are what Mahamat describes as on-site diagnostics, and include a dermatoscope for examining skin conditions, a stethoscope for heart activity, an otoscope for ear examinations, an oximeter for measuring blood oxygen levels, and temperature sensors. For maternal care, the kiosk also includes a probe that can be used to monitor the foetus. This setup is meant to close the gap that a standard video consultation cannot, because the doctors are receiving inputs that emulate a physical examination. Interacting with these tools is not always known, particularly for first-time users. Because of this, each kiosk is manned by a trained local operator who steps into position to set up the devices and provide assistance. “The kiosk is placed in a private area where there are only the patients and their doctors. The local operators can be nearby if the patient needs help with the on-site diagnostics,” he added. Telemedan’s kiosks also handle care continuity; doctors can issue prescriptions at the end of a session, which patients can print directly from the kiosk. At the same time, patients receive updates and reminders through SMS on their phones to ensure that they can follow up on appointments or treatment without needing a smartphone. For users with a smartphone, Telemedan is extending this information and follow-up layer through a mobile application that is currently in development. According to Mahamat, this app will allow patients to access their prescriptions and medical records as an extension of the Kiosks. Mahamat noted that the kiosks are optimised for environments with unreliable infrastructure; they are solar-powered and connect to the internet using a mix of 4G and satellite systems, depending on what is available in each location. “In some areas it’s working perfectly,” he said of 4G, “but in some areas that are very, very far we are using the satellite antenna… for more efficiency.” Assembly of Telemedan Kiosk. Image source: Telemedan Each kiosk takes about two weeks to produce, according to Mahamat, because some components, like the touchscreen, are imported before local assembly. He noted that the kiosks are designed to be low-maintenance, not needing constant intervention. Local operators are trained to handle minor physical issues, such as disconnected components, while more complex software problems are resolved remotely by the Telemedan team. “If you have a problem with the software, we can fix that at a distance,” he said, but for hardware issues like a broken screen, the team may need to step in physically. Telemedan has begun to layer in additional capabilities, more recently, an AI-powered tool used for detecting diabetic retinopathy through retinal scans, Mahamat noted, describing it as one of the first steps in integrating AI into the system. Partnerships and pricing Telemedan’s business operation is such that the people who need the service the most are not the ones who pay for the infrastructure. The kiosks themselves cost about $10,000 per unit, and that cost is not passed on to patients, because Telemedan sells directly to governments and public health programmes and organisations that are working to expand access to care. This structure makes Telemedan a business-to-government (B2G) and business-to-business (B2B) model, with patients as
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