Nigerian artificial intelligence firm, Awarri, has announced that it will collaborate with 500 fellows from the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) program as data collectors, three months after releasing the nation’s first Large Language Multilingual (LLM) AI model.
This was revealed on Wednesday by Dr Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, who reiterated the government’s commitment to generating more tech-related employment for Nigerians.
Awarri, a Lagos-based artificial intelligence firm formed by Silas Adekunle and Eniola Edun, seeks to address Nigeria’s youth unemployment and technical skills gap.
Awarri said it intends to teach and hire 5,000 youngsters by 2026, working with a team of over 100 locally trained AI specialists.
The company has grown to a workforce of 120 people and has hired over 500 fellows from the 3MTT Nigeria programme as data collectors.
This collaborative endeavour is critical to building Nigeria’s first Large Language Multilingual Model.
“I’m glad to see the growth of the Awarri team since its launch in November 2023 to 120 staff, with an additional engagement of over 500 fellows from our 3MTTNigeria programme as data collectors, as they build Nigeria’s first Large Language Multilingual Model.
“Looking forward to seeing more companies in the space as we slowly but surely build a technology workforce that will contribute to global AI development,” the Minister stated in a post on X Wednesday night.
Dr. Tijani emphasised the importance of these achievements in developing a strong technological workforce.
He believes that as more companies enter this emerging market, Nigeria will play an important part in the global AI development scene.
This program demonstrates Nigeria’s dedication to advancing innovation and contributing to the larger technical frontier.
We earlier reported that The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) of the Federal Government of Nigeria has made grand plans to create research facilities devoted to cutting-edge technologies.
