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Five officials from Nigeria’s state-owned international broadcaster, Voice of Nigeria, were among 55 policymakers and institutional leaders from 22 African countries who successfully completed a continent-wide fellowship on Artificial Intelligence (AI) governance.
The four-month AI Literacy Fellowship for African Policymakers, organised by the Open School Initiative, brought together senior public officials, regulators, academics, civil society leaders, and media professionals to enhance Africa’s capacity to develop responsible and inclusive AI policies.
The VON participants included Engineer Kassim Umar, Assistant Director (IT); Shu’aibu Othman Sambo, Assistant Director (Programmes); Tukur Garba Arab, Chief Producer (Languages); Abdul Mohammed Isa, Chief News Editor; and Fatima Abdulkadir Jidda, Assistant Chief Data Processing Officer.
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The programme was delivered in collaboration with Cosmopolitan University Abuja, System Strategy and Policy Lab, and Tanzeel College International, with additional technical input from academia and industry professionals.
Resource persons included experts affiliated with Microsoft through its Change Agents initiative, as well as contributors from Google, universities, and policy-focused organisations.
At the closing ceremony, Catherine Muraga, Managing Director of the Microsoft Africa Development Center in Nairobi, Kenya, urged African institutions to actively participate in shaping AI governance frameworks.
“Artificial intelligence must be guided by values, context and purpose,” Muraga said, noting that Africa has an opportunity to influence how the technology is governed globally.
During the programme, fellows worked in multidisciplinary teams on policy-focused capstone projects covering sectors including public service delivery, media, education, climate policy and health.
Organisers said graduates are expected to apply the training to policy development, institutional reforms and public-interest communication in their respective countries, as AI technologies increasingly influence governance and information systems across the continent.
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