NIGERIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Tiwalola Osazuwa, Peretimi Akinmodun, Lazarus Uwa Kalu and Mubaraq Popoola, ǼLEX
creating a regulatory vacuum that raises legal and ethical concerns. Despite this gap, existing laws can be leveraged to address some of the challenges associated with AI adoption. AI applications in Nigeria cover a broad range, including predictive analytics and fraud detec - tion in financial services, personalised learning tools in education and customer service across several sectors. These applications are powered by the collection and processing of vast amounts of data, often personal and sensitive. In terms of personal data handling, the NDPA is relevant. While not AI-specific, the NDPA sets standards for data collection, processing and storage, ensuring that AI developers and users have a statutory guide and are able to mitigate risks of data misuse and privacy violations, which are prevalent concerns in AI systems. Furthermore, the NDPA addresses the use of automated deci - sion-making processes that significantly impact data subjects, ensuring that individuals are pro - tected from AI-driven decision making. Similarly, consumer protection is another area where existing laws can help address gaps cre - ated by the absence of comprehensive AI regu - lation. The use of AI in consumer-facing applica - tions, such as e-commerce or customer service, could result in unfair practices, discrimination or harm. In this regard, the provisions of the FCCPA play a crucial role in protecting consumers from unfair and deceptive practices, promoting accountability, ensuring redress mechanisms and mandating transparency and fairness. Cybersecurity is another critical area impacted by AI adoption. While AI systems enhance effi - ciency, they also create vulnerabilities, including exposure to cyber-attacks and the risk of deploy - ing biased or harmful algorithms. In this regard, Nigeria’s Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention,
etc) Act 2015 provides a useful framework to address cyber threats, covering offences such as hacking and unauthorised data access, which could be exploited in AI-driven environments. Copyright law is also relevant in the AI landscape as generative AI systems create content such as music, art and literature. In this respect, the Cop - yright Act 2022 (the “CA 2022”) recognises the rights of authors over their creations but does not explicitly address issues surrounding AI- generated works, which raises questions about ownership, attribution and licensing. Despite the limitation of the CA 2022 in address - ing AI authorship, the CA 2022 empowers the Nigerian Copyright Commission (the “NCC”) to demand information and access any data - base relating to copyright, without warrant. This means that the NCC can potentially demand that an AI deployer provides access to the underlying data used in training its model, to ascertain if it was developed using copyrighted information. While the above laws apply to certain aspects of AI, their general nature may limit their effec - tiveness in addressing the unique challenges AI technologies pose, such as algorithmic bias and accountability for autonomous decisions. Notably, the Nigerian government has demon - strated a keen interest in AI by developing a national AI strategy under the Ministry of Com - munications, Innovation and Digital Economy. It is expected that this strategy will establish a clear path to the development of regulations to support and promote responsible AI practices and provide necessary protection in Nigeria.
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