The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, has revealed that the federal government has awarded a total of N200 million in grants to 55 Nigerian researchers and innovators through two of its tech programs.

The programmes are the Nigeria Artificial Intelligence Research Scheme (NAIRS) and the Fourth Industrial Revolution Technology Application (4IRTA).

Tijani made this known via a post on X while unveiling the Ministry’s plan for the next year.

He stated that the government is now working on putting to use the results of the research and solutions built by the innovators for the improvement of the economy.

He wrote: “After awarding grants totalling N200 million under these two thematic programs to 55 Nigerian researchers and innovators, we are collating the outcomes of their demonstration projects so as to scale relevant solutions to businesses to drive increased productivity"

More about the programs

Under the NAIR scheme, the Ministry in December last year announced the selection of 45 Nigerian researchers to receive grants to develop their AI projects.

The selected AI researchers cut across healthcare, agriculture, finance, and education. According to Tijani, the Scheme aims to foster a vibrant and sustainable AI ecosystem in Nigeria by providing grants and facilitating knowledge sharing and collaboration among individuals and organizations in the AI industry.

He added that the proposals from the selected researchers tackle some of Nigeria’s pressing challenges and offer the potential to “revolutionize industries, empower communities, and unlock a future full of possibilities.”

Similarly, in January this year, 10 start-ups were shortlisted under the 4IRTA program to receive up to N10 million in funding to deepen the application of agriculture technologies.

Tijani, who unveiled the selected projects, said the initiative was in support of President Bola Tinubu’s mandate to cultivate 500,000 hectares of land across Nigeria to boost food security.