Founder/CVO, Digital Encode, Dr. Adewale Obadare, has emphasised the need for the country to understand the threat landscape and the role of cybersecurity in protecting against these threats in her effort at driving sub-sectoral digital growth with Artificial Intelligence.
Making a presentation at a one-day ICT Growth Conference organised by the Nigeria Information Technology Reporters’ Association (NITRA), in Lagos, Obadare noted that Nigeria was lagging behind other African countries in cybersecurity, with the financial sector being the only one driving it forward.
Dr. Obadare, who was represented at the event by the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Group Head, Government Risk Compliance advisory, at Digital Encode, Mr. Oluwakayode Olatunji, underscored the potential of AI in various sectors of the economy, including medical and agricultural sectors, highlighting its ability to diagnose ailments and predict productivity but was however, quick to warn against the dangers in the misuse of AI.
The cybersecurity expert highlighted the use of Artificial Intelligence in detection and prevention of crime, and reporting capabilities, and stressed the need for responsible AI and continued investment in AI and cybersecurity.
While identifying governance, regulation, communication and compliance as key elements in implementing effective cybersecurity strategies, Obadare highlighted the importance of AI architecture, including business and data architecture, and the need for a secure technology infrastructure.
“Data protection and privacy are crucial components of AI implementation. The process of implementing AI, from setting goals to monitoring usage, is very important just as the role of education and investment in education for driving AI adoption and economic growth cannot be overemphasised,” he said.
Speaking on Governance and Communication in AI, Obadare said that while Governance is a critical aspect of AI implementation, including regulation, strategy, and compliance, Communication is a key element in ensuring effective AI usage and management.
For Nigeria to fully feel the impact of AI on national development, Obadare advocated the need for sustained human capacity development and processes to address AI implementation challenges and argued that monitoring AI usage and ensuring its alignment with set goals in the implementation process cannot be underestimated.
Obadare, who called for increased public sector and government investment in education to drive AI adoption and economic growth, noted that the role of education in providing the necessary skills and knowledge for AI implementation cannot be ignored.
According to him, “The concept of a knowledge economy is introduced, where knowledge can be monetized to address various economic sectors. If you look at countries that are using AI to drive the economy, you discover that education is one of the precedents, and education brings about that change; it brings about skill sets.
“When we look into all this, you discover that most of the things that we are struggling with here in this part of the world, will now become what we refer to as knowledge economy. And as a country, we have the potential of being a leading light in the knowledge economy because Nigeria is blessed with brilliant men and women.”
While proposing the disruption of the educational sector for better data quality, Obadare, who was recently appointed a Professor of Practice by the Miva Open University, Abuja, emphasised the importance of having good data quality, noting that relying too heavily on outsourced data libraries can lead to issues.
“To address this, there is the need to disrupt the educational sector, particularly from primary to tertiary institutions, to focus more on institutional or focused-based research. During the COVID-19 pandemic, much of the global data was sourced from John Austin Hospital, indicating the importance of local research centres.
“We should encourage partnerships with the private and public sectors to make local content hubs, which would then attract global tech companies like Facebook and Google. Our educational sector should be research-oriented and local content-focused to improve data quality and upskill the workforce, comparing the challenge to training AI rather than traditional skills,” he said.
