Nigeria and other developing countries risk missing the artificial intelligence revolution unless they urgently embrace and adapt the technology to their local realities, the World Bank Group’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President for Development Economics, Indermit Gill, warned on Wednesday.
Gill gave the warning while delivering the keynote address at the 7th Africa Emerging Markets Forum in Abuja, organised by the Central Bank of Nigeria in collaboration with the Emerging Markets Forum and the Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa.
He cautioned governments against allowing fears of job losses associated with AI in advanced economies to shape policies in countries such as Nigeria. Gill said, “There is a danger that countries like Nigeria, countries like India and others will miss this industrial revolution.”
Drawing a historical comparison, he added, “You have to remember… what happened when we missed the Industrial Revolution? You ended up being behind for 200 years. You can’t miss this.”
According to Gill, AI presents greater opportunities than risks for developing countries because it is more likely to complement workers than replace them. He explained that AI is evolving much faster than previous transformative technologies and is highly context-specific, making adaptation more important than simply adopting foreign technologies or attempting to develop frontier AI models.
“The highest returns are actually in back-end predictive AI,” he said, noting that predictive AI could significantly improve agriculture, healthcare, education and judicial services in developing economies. These are not hypotheticals. These are actual numbers,” he added, citing examples from Kenya, Bangladesh and India’s Telangana state.
Gill said only about 10 per cent of jobs in poorer economies were likely to be adversely affected by AI, compared with 30 to 40 per cent in advanced economies, arguing that widespread fears of mass unemployment were misplaced.
