Nigeria has emerged as Africa’s highest-ranked country in the 2026 Global Index on Responsible AI (GIRAI), climbing 42 places in two years to underscore the country’s growing ambition to become a continental leader in artificial intelligence (AI) governance, digital skills development and responsible AI adoption.
The latest edition of the Global Index on Responsible AI, published by the Global Center on AI Governance (GCG), ranks Nigeria 38th globally with an overall score of 45.93, making it the highest-performing African country ahead of Egypt.
The result marks a dramatic improvement from the inaugural 2024 edition, when Nigeria ranked 80th globally with a score of 7.21, reflecting significant progress in the country’s AI policy, governance and institutional capacity.
For Nigeria, the latest ranking signals growing international recognition of efforts to build a responsible AI ecosystem and positions the country not only as a consumer of AI technologies but also as an emerging
