National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy

What it does

NITDA is a statutory IT regulator with real powers (registration, standards, sanctions under the NITDA Act) and hosts the National Centre for AI and Robotics (NCAIR). The Federal Ministry owns the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (NAIS), which was itself produced through an unusually open process — a crowdsourced drafting workshop involving Nigerian researchers in the diaspora. A National AI Bill was reported as moving toward approval in 2026, which would create statutory AI powers. The Nigeria Data Protection Commission separately regulates AI's personal-data dimension with fining power.

Its powers

compel

Honest assessment

Nigeria's NAIS drafting explicitly drew on Nigerian researchers abroad, which is genuine openness to non-resident input — though to diaspora, not to foreigners generally. Everything is in English, which removes the main barrier. But I verified no contact address, and the AI Bill's status was unconfirmed. Nigeria's AI governance is developmental in focus with no frontier-risk dimension.

Notes

Nigeria is not a network member. NITDA has genuine enforcement powers, unlike most bodies in this list, but has not to my knowledge exercised them on AI safety grounds.