On a typical morning in Lagos, contrasts are everywhere. A roadside trader accepts mobile transfers beneath a billboard advertising prosperity. When a startup introduces “smart mobility” on certain roads, traffic jams stretch on endlessly. This is the Nigeria of 2026: energetic, hopeful and innovative, but also full of perennial challenges.
In design, there is a popular term: “wicked problems”. Not problems with simple answers, but deep-rooted challenges like food insecurity, fragile healthcare systems and millions of children left out of class. Fix one layer, and two more will appear. Ignore them, and they will quietly get worse.
However, Nigeria is not alone. In the global South, from India to Kenya to Brazil, countries facing similar hurdles are showing that artificial intelligence need not be a luxury reserved for Silicon Valley. When used well, AI can become a practical, everyday tool for survival, efficiency and inclusion.
Healthcare: When technology becomes a bridge, not a replacement
The healthcare gap in Nigeria is one of its most painful realities. Even when you look away, there's still a story or two reminding you of this perennial “wicked problem.”
India also faced similar shortages. Instead of waiting decades to train millions of doctors, it used AI as a bridge. Community health workers now screen for tuberculosis and eye diseases using simple smartphone tools. In Bangladesh, similar pilots showed something important: AI does not replace doctors. This filtered cases, ensuring that specialists focused on those who really needed immediate care.
For Nigeria, the lesson is simple and powerful. We already have community health workers everywhere. With AI support, a nurse in a rural clinic can suddenly have access to expert-level insights through a screen, saving time, money and lives.
Agriculture: Helping farmers make decisions, not guess
Agriculture feeds Nigeria, but it also frustrates millions of farmers. Productivity remains low due to climate uncertainty, pests and low access to information.
In Kenya, PlantVillage Nuru helps farmers quickly identify crop diseases using computer vision. In Ghana, Agrocenta applies machine learning and satellite data to predict crop health and improve access to markets.
These devices are not “good to have”. They are survival tools. When AI works offline, on basic phones, and in local conditions, it becomes relevant not only for large commercial farms, but also for small farmers.
Food security becomes less mysterious when farmers know when to plant, what is attacking their crops, and how to respond – without waiting for extension officers who may never come.
Education: Teaching children has been missed by the system
With an estimated 18 million children out of school, the traditional classroom model cannot move fast enough.
Other countries have stopped waiting. In India, platforms like BYJU'S use AI to personalize learning for millions of students. In Kenya, Eneza Education offers adaptive lessons via SMS and low-bandwidth tools.
These systems learn how the child understands math or reading, then adjust in real time. No laptop. Continuous no electricity. Simply learning designed for real-world situations.
For Nigeria, this approach could quietly transform communities where schools exist mostly in name, and teachers are sorely lacking.
ground level
Every Nigerian is full of ideas. We lack scale, coordination and trust. AI will not magically fix our problems, but it can help us manage them better if we build to suit Nigerian realities.
This means power solutions that work with or without Disco. This means local data that understands our accents, crops and communities. And above all, it means earning public trust by deploying AI that supports people, not replaces them.
The choice before us is clear; The problems aren't going to go away overnight, but we can take inspiration from countries with similar economic challenges and demographics to turn these wicked problems into opportunities for continued AI innovation.
Dotun Adeoye is a technology entrepreneur, AI governance leader and co-founder of AI in Nigeria. He has over 30 years of global experience across Europe, North America, Asia and Africa advising organizations on AI transformation, governance and digital development.
