Nigeria Launches its First Multilingual LLM

The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced the country's first multilingual large language model (LLM), as revealed by Communications Minister Bosun Tijani on X.

This AI system is designed to understand, process, and produce text in multiple languages. The announcement coincided with a four-day AI workshop in Abuja, which saw participation from over 120 AI specialists aimed at fostering AI growth within the region.

“The LLM will be trained in five low-resource languages and accented English to ensure stronger language representation in existing datasets for the development of artificial intelligence solutions,” said Tijani.

The LLM will focus on enhancing AI capabilities in five underrepresented languages and accented English, aiming to improve the diversity and accuracy of language data used in AI applications. This initiative is part of a broader national effort to advance AI technology, which includes partnerships with both local and international tech firms and the support of over 7,000 fellows from the 3MTT Nigeria program.

Additionally, Tijani announced the reopening of the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR), in partnership with Cisco. This center, a first in Africa, is intended to spearhead research and development in AI, robotics, and the Internet of Things.

The goal is to leverage these technologies in critical areas of national interest. The enhanced capabilities of the NCAIR are expected to bolster its role as a hub for digital innovation and research, significantly contributing to Nigeria's AI landscape.