World Bank: Nigerian Firms Hit 40% AI Adoption, Matching US Levels
World Bank data shows that 40 percent of Nigerian firms have adopted artificial intelligence, a rate the bank says matches US enterprise adoption levels. The finding provides a concrete demand-side benchmark that sits alongside separate warnings that foreign firms, rather than domestic players, are capturing the value from Nigeria's fast-growing AI market.
Nigeria's AI Adoption: using the tools, but not owning them
40% of Nigerian formal firms now use AI — matching the United States, according to the World Bank. That number is genuinely striking.
But the same report notes that 21% of those adopters are running chatbots on mobile phones, and a separate review warns that Nigeria remains almost entirely a consumer of foreign-built models, cloud infrastructure, and platforms. Nigerian firms are feeding their data into systems owned elsewhere.
Matching America in adoption rates is not the same as matching America in where the value lands. The adoption curve is real; the ownership question is wide open.
1 source
- World Bank: AI adoption among Nigerian firms jumps to 40%, matching US levels · nairametrics.com · T2