Nigeria's Tech Industry Gains Momentum with Awarri's Engagement of 500 Fellows.

Written on 25/07/2024
Punch News

Abuja, Nigeria – The Nigerian government's initiative to bolster the tech industry has achieved a milestone as Awarri, the startup selected to build Nigeria’s first Artificial Intelligence, has engaged 500 fellows from the 3 Million Technical Talent program.

Launched in November 2023, Awarri has expanded its team to 120 staff and now incorporates 500 data collectors to aid in the development of Nigeria’s first Large Language Multilingual Model. This significant engagement underscores the government's commitment to advancing the nation's technological capabilities.



Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, said in a statement posted on his X account on Wednesday, “I’m glad to see the growth of the Awarri team and the engagement of over 500 fellows from our 3MTTNigeria program as data collectors. This is a significant step towards achieving our goal of creating a robust tech ecosystem in Nigeria.”

In April, the minister announced the launch of Nigeria’s first LLM after a four-day AI workshop in Abuja.

The Minister said the project is a collaboration between Awarri, DataDotOrg, the National Information Technology Development Agency, and the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, supported by over 7,000 fellows from the 3MTT program and $3.5m in funding from various partners.

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