Recently, Nigeria’s Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Professor Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda, announced that his office will deploy artificial intelligence in tracking and mapping poor people in Nigeria. In fact, he did announce that artificial intelligence has already been deployed to tracking poor people noting that it has helped the government to expand it poor people’s register from 13 million to 19.7 million. He said: “Ai helped us to generate a list of urban poor individuals as well. We used satellite imagery to locate urban slums, then base stations and telecoms data to identify phone numbers in those locations. Ai helped us to generate a list of urban poor individuals by verifying those numbers, their access to financial services and other indicators.”
This is coming at a time when there is a global concern, especially in the academia, about the use of artificial intelligence in school work. Many top schools across the world are raising their voices about the use of Ai tools by students in their homework and other class assignments. However, a 2024 Digital Education Council survey of higher education students worldwide indicated that about 86 percent of college students admitted using artificial intelligence in their homework. A PEW research study in the United States of America reported that 26 percent of students aged between 13 years and 17 years used ChatGPT in their homework while a 2023 BestColleges survey found that about 60 percent of college students used Ai for assignments and examinations.
In the United Kingdom, a GoStudent Report this year indicated that about 35 percent of students aged between 10 years and 16 years, use Ai in their school work while a Downe House School study found that 77 percent of students aged between 15 years and 18 years used Ai tools for homework. In Singapore, a CAN survey of 500 students comprising junior colleges, secondary schools and universities found 100 percent Ai use for homework with 85 percent of students using Ai weekly. In Sweden, 35 percent of university 5000 students surveyed used ChatGPT regularly in their school work as a 2023 survey while a 2025 GoStudent survey in Europe found that 85 percent of students aged between 10 years and 16 years, across six European countries, used Ai in their studies.
It is further reported that 86 percent of students in Singapore used Ai to generate ideas while 53 percent in many countries surveyed admitted using it to brainstorm and research while 63 percent others admitted using it to solve mathematics.
The situation is not different in Africa. A 2025 World Bank study in Nigeria found that a six-week GPT-4 tutoring programme after school led to learning gains that are equivalent to two years of typical education. The same is said of Ghana where there are indications of significant gains learning with Ai. In Rwanda, the Rwandan Coding Academy integrates AI data science into secondary curricula, with a focus on coding and AI literacy while a report from Ethiopia indicated that the Ministry of Education there is training 34,000 instructors to use Ai for monitoring students and enhancing learning. South Africa has already adopted it for personal learning and administrative tasks in urban center die to infrastructure gap. Rising Academy Network which operates in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ghana uses Ai to enhance teacher preparedness and streamline administrative tasks.
Though opinions are divided as to whether it is ethical for students to use Ai in their homework and also, if it is ethical for teachers to grade students using Ai tools, the penetration of Ai in the advancement of education in Africa is limited by the dearth of infrastructure, especially, electricity and internet connectivity. Over 80 percent of African students lack internet at home while over 95 percent do not have smart phones added to the fact that over 70 million Africans lack electricity. Besides, many Africa countries are yet to design and develop and Ai policy even as many parts of the world are running away with huge investments in it. This year, China established the National AI Industry investment Fund with an initial investment of approximately 8.2 billon US Dollars while the Bank of China, in January 2025, developed a five-year plan to financially support the growth of the Ai industry with approximately 138 billion US Dollars.
These suggest that Ai is no longer tool meant for smartphones. It is a productivity tool that is fast changing the way people work and learn. It also suggests that countries that pull their legs in embracing AI for productivity will be left behind in the race for technological advancement. Nigeria may become one of such countries. This is because despite the fast-paced embrace of Ai technology, our beautiful country is yet to develop and implement any policy that will encourage the use of Ai in schools for learning purposes. Except for the Nigeria Artificial Intelligence Strategy (NAIS) launched in August 2024, which aims at fostering Ai development in the country, Nigeria is yet to purposefully develop Ai learning either as an addition to secondary school curriculum, or as a dedicated course in universities and polytechnics. This is clearly not in the best interest of Nigeria’s future.
With Prof. Yilwatda’s use of Ai in poverty mapping in urban locations in Nigeria could be the minister way of exposing Nigeria to what Ai can do for it. Beyond using it for poverty mapping, Ai comes in handy in disease diagnosis and management. It is useful in telemedicine and drug discovery. It is helpful in agriculture and can be deployed for precision farming by way of analysing soil data, weather patterns and crop health to optimize yield. it is very effective in education by encouraging personalized learning and can be deployed to resolved the out-of-school syndrome in Nigeria. Ai is good enough in the financial sector where banks can use it to detect suspicious transactions and tackle cyber fraud as well as in customer services. It a very effective tool for security and governance as it enhances facial recognition and precise policing to combat crime in large cities. It can become the best-needed infrastructure to fight election rigging and ensure accurate vote count in Nigeria. It can also become the next big thing in energy solutions ensuring grip and renewable energy optimization.
The fact is that the limitless capacity of Ai technology to transform societies can only be tapped into through purposeful investments in the development of Ai technology. For Nigeria, this should begin with the inclusion of Ai studies in secondary school curriculum. This will expose many of the kid prodigies that are in school sketching amoeba and spirogyra to the future ahead of them. The general consensus is that artificial intelligence can improve learning especially when content is adapted to individual student needs. For instance, a 2023 study in adaptive learning systems showed a 15 percent to 20 percent improvement in student retention of concepts using Ai, compared to traditional methods.