Nigeria has been ranked 72nd out of 188 countries in the 2025 Government AI Readiness Index, placing it fourth in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to a report published by Oxford Insights.
The ranking positions Nigeria among the continent’s leading nations in preparedness to deploy artificial intelligence in public service delivery, behind only Kenya, South Africa and Mauritius.
The index assessed 195 governments using 69 indicators across six pillars, including policy capacity, governance, infrastructure and public sector adoption, with other African countries in the global top 100 listed as Rwanda, Ghana and Morocco.
The report highlighted Nigeria’s strong performance in key areas, ranking the country 35th globally in Policy Capacity and 49th in Development and Diffusion, reflecting recent AI policy initiatives and growing investment in the domestic AI sector.
Oxford Insights noted that Nigeria has moved from strategy to implementation, citing the launch of the Nigeria AI Scaling Hub, though it added that regional structural challenges continue to limit overall progress, as Sub-Saharan Africa ranks last among global regions.
The ranking comes amid renewed momentum for AI development in Nigeria, following the January 7, 2026 announcement by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, on the establishment of a National AI Centre of Excellence at the University of Jos. “AI is built on numbers, and Nigeria has the numbers,” Tijani said, stressing that Nigerian universities must drive research into locally relevant datasets to support contextually intelligent AI systems.