Technology

Google Search Trends Show Interests of Nigerians in Artificial Intelligence Grow

Published

3 years ago

03/02/2023

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

New search trends released by Google have revealed that Nigerians are more interested than ever in Artificial Intelligence (AI) as their interests grew by 100 per cent in 2022 from 2021.

According to Google search Trends, search interest in “artificial intelligence” reached a record high in 2022 in Nigeria and across the world, with top trending questions in Nigeria including “what is AI art”, “what is deep learning in artificial intelligence”, “how to become an AI engineer” and “when was artificial intelligence invented” – all of which have been searched 5,000 per cent more in 2022 than 2021.

Other searches included “what is artificial intelligence all about” (+370%), “is artificial intelligence a course” (+260%) and “what is artificial intelligence” (+130%).

Google, which views AI as a solution for addressing significant societal challenges like climate change, recently shared their approach to pursuing AI responsibly, which includes the need to prioritise building and testing for safety, and prioritising its purpose for the public good.

“It’s great to see people in Nigeria showing more of an interest in the transformational technology that is AI. AI is already a key part of many of our lives – in fact, if you use Google tools regularly, you’re probably using AI without even realising: it’s what helps Maps give you the fastest or most fuel-efficient route or Search to find what you’re looking for.

“We’re continuing to pursue AI boldly and responsibly – creating tools that improve the lives of as many people as possible,” the President of Google Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Matt Brittin, said.

The trends, released today, also show that people in Nigeria are increasingly interested in protecting their cybersecurity and online privacy.

In 2022, searches for “computer security” were the top form of security searched worldwide and in Nigeria, while “cybercrime” was searched at record levels globally. Nigerians frequently searched for cyber security – with “what is ethical hacking” increasing by over 5,000%, while searches for “what is cybersecurity” and “what is a virus in a computer” increased by 200% and 80%, respectively.

Google is using AI to address security challenges – including on Gmail, which automatically blocks more than 99.9% of malware, phishing and spam and protects more than 1.5 billion inboxes using AI.

With more people using the internet than ever before to manage every aspect of their daily lives, people in Nigeria are also interested in increasing their privacy online. Searches for “private browsing” surged in 2022, increasing by 70% – while Nigerians searched for “one-time passwords” more than any other country worldwide. Searches for “password manager”- a Google tool that makes it easy to use a strong, unique password for all of your online accounts – also reached a 10-year high in Nigeria.

People in Nigeria also turned to Google to help them better understand the economy, learn new skills and build their careers.

2022 was an uncertain year economically, reflected in the search trends.

Searches for inflation hit an all-time high worldwide and a 10-year high in Nigeria. Searches for “causes of cost-push inflation”, “creeping inflation” and “what is a recession” increased by over 5,000%. People also took to Google to understand the causes of rising prices and how to reduce them – with searches for “how to save heat”, “how to save water” and “how to save money” increasing by 370%, 80% and 22%, respectively.

People in Nigeria aren’t just turning to Google to understand these issues – they’re also looking for resources to navigate these challenges and build their careers. Searches for “how to learn coding” doubled, while searches for “how to learn video editing” (+450%), “how to learn web development” (+350%) and “how to learn photoshop” (+130%) also increased.

People also turned to Google to prepare for job interviews and find new opportunities: with search interest for the topic “job” increasing by 50%. Google itself continues to offer training and advice to those who need it most, having provided digital skills training to 22 million people across Europe, the Middle East and Africa since 2015 through their ‘Grow with Google’ programme.

People in Nigeria care about building a more sustainable future – and are using Google to understand how to do that.

The trends released today also show that people in Nigeria value environmentalism and sustainability. Across the world, searches for “climate change”, “climate crisis” and “sustainability” reached record highs – while in Nigeria, searches for “eco anxiety”, “greenwashing”, and “veganism” are at an all-time high.

Nigerians are also increasingly searching for “green energy”, “sustainable art” and “low emission vehicle” – all rising over 5,000% – as well as “renewable fuels” (+330%), “green growth” (+330%) and “solar fuel” (+240%).

Across the world, searches for environmental disasters were searched more than ever – including “drought”, “flood” and “landslides”, while in Nigeria “heat wave” has reached an all-time search high.

Google is no stranger to increased interest in sustainability – and, as well as working to achieve net zero emissions across all of its operations and value chain by 2030, is committed to enabling everyone to make more sustainable choices.

Over the last few years, Google has made changes to its core products, which reach billions of people each day, to help users make more sustainable choices.

Last year, Google released eco-friendly routing in Europe, which uses artificial intelligence to help show Google Maps users the most fuel and eco-efficient route, as well as the fastest.

The tool is already estimated to have saved more than half a million metric tons of carbon emissions – equivalent to taking 100,000 fuel-based cars off the road. Google also made changes to its Hotel, Flight and Shopping tools to help users see which options are most sustainable.

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Modupe Gbadeyanka

Modupe Gbadeyanka is a fast-rising journalist with Business Post Nigeria. Her passion for journalism is amazing. She is willing to learn more with a view to becoming one of the best pen-pushers in Nigeria. Her role models are the duo of CNN's Richard Quest and Christiane Amanpour.

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Technology

Zoho Unveils Zia LLM, Expands AI Suite With Agents, Studio Tools

Published

14 hours ago

28/08/2025

Modupe Gbadeyanka

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

A global technology company, Zoho, has introduced its proprietary large language model known as Zia LLM, trained specifically for business use cases, keeping privacy and governance at its core, which has resulted in lowering the inference cost, passing on that value to the customers, while also ensuring that they are able to utilise AI productively and efficiently.

In a statement, the company also announced the launched of a no-code agent builder, Zia Agent Studio, over 25 deployable Zia agents, and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server to open up its vast library of actions to third-party agents.

The Country Head for Zoho Nigeria, Mr Kehinde Ogundare, noted that these products demonstrate the organisation’s longstanding aim to build foundational technology focused on protection of customer data, breadth and depth of capabilities because of the business context, and value.

Zia LLM leveraged NVIDIA’s AI accelerated computing platform. It comprises three models with 1.3 billion, 2.6 billion and 7 billion parameters, each separately trained and optimised for contextual applicability that benchmark competitively against comparable open source models in the market.

The three models allow Zoho to always optimise the right model for the right user context, striking the balance between power and resource management. In the short term, Zoho will scale Zia LLM’s model sizes, starting with the first set of parameter increases by the end of 2025.

While Zoho supports many LLM integrations for users, including ChatGPT, Llama, and DeepSeek, Zia LLM continues its commitment to data privacy by allowing customers to keep their data on its servers, leveraging the latest AI capabilities without sending their data to AI cloud providers.

As for the Zia Agent Studio, Zoho has simplified it to be fully prompt-based (with the option to use low-code) and includes ready-made access to over 700 actions across its products.

Agents built by users can be deployed autonomously, triggered by button click, with rule-based automation, or even summoned within customer conversations.

To enable immediate adoption of agentic technology, Zoho has developed a roster of AI agents contextually baked right into its products. These agents can be used across various business activities, handling relevant actions based on the role of the user. These include Customer Service Agent for Zoho Desk that can process incoming customer requests, understand the context, and either answer directly or triage them to a human rep, providing an efficient first line of assistance.

At the time of deployment, an agent can be provisioned as a digital employee, maintaining the user access permission structure defined within the organisation. Admins can perform behavioural audits as well as performance and impact analyses on digital employees, ensuring that every agent is working as effectively as possible and within clear guardrails.

These agents are available in Agent Marketplace from where customers can easily deploy them. Ecosystem partners, ISVs, and individual developers will be able to create agents and host them on the Zia Agents Marketplace in coming months.

The company plans to add more skills to Ask Zia, allowing it to act as an assistant to Finance teams, Customer Support teams to start with. Support for the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol will be implemented, allowing Zia Agents to interact and collaborate with each other, as well as collaborate with agents on other platforms.

Technology

AI Can Drive Nigeria’s GDP Growth by 20%—NITDA

Published

16 hours ago

28/08/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mr Kashifu Inuwa, has projected that the digital economy, using Artificial Intelligence (AI), could drive the country’s economy up to 20 per cent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth.

Mr Inuwa said at the 3rd Economic Confidential Lecture in Abuja on Wednesday that AI was no longer optional but essential.

“Those who fail to upskill will be replaced. AI can free up 20 per cent of time for higher productivity, and nations leading in AI will lead the world.”

According to him, the country can not afford to miss the fourth industrial revolution after losing out in the first three revolutions.

Mr Inuwa said that there were ongoing collaborations with the Ministry of Education to build digital literacy into the country’s national curriculum, and with the office of Head of Service of the Federation to enhance civil service training .

“Market women can now connect with customers through mobile technology. But as we connect, we must also protect, and cybersecurity is a critical pillar.”

The President and Chairman of Council, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Mr Ike Neliaku, said that the country must ensure that participation in the digital global economy is inclusive, innovative, and sustainable.

Mr Neliaku, was represented by NIPR fellow, Mr Afolabi Olajuwon, urged the country to be committed to building capacity, investing in infrastructure, and creating policies that enable innovation to thrive.

“We are living in a period where technology is reshaping governance, trade, education, healthcare and every aspect of human endeavour.

“Nations that fail to embrace the digital revolution risk being left behind, while those that seize the opportunity can leapfrog barriers to growth and development,” Mr Neliaku said.

He said that the country was blessed with a dynamic youth population, abundant talent and a spirit of innovation,adding that must advance its embrace of this new reality.

Mr Neliaku said that the Renewed Hope Agenda challenged Nigerians to harness technology, not merely as consumers, but as creators, innovators and exporters of digital solutions.

He said that to achieve this, there should be collaboration among government, private sector and the academia, adding that the media was not optional, but critical and essential.

“I also wish to commend the unveiling of the three landmark publications: Diplomacy and digital innovation: youths’ insights. Healing Nigeria: A chronicle of health reform and hope, and also the Renewed hope in central banking.

“Each of these publications reflects a thoughtful attempt to capture pressing national and global issues, while offering practical insights for policy and practice.

“They are not just books, but tools for shaping informed conversations and evidence-based decision-making,” Mr Neliaku said.

Other experts identified AI as a key factor to be embraced to drive Nigeria’s economy into a prosperous one.

They canvassed for the deployment of technology and AI into the country’s current struggle for economic diversification and general development.

Specifically, they called for the adoption of AI to enhance Nigeria’s growth in the fourth global industrial revolution.

Technology

ntel Eyes 2026 Return to Nigeria’s Telco Market

Published

3 days ago

26/08/2025

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

Nigeria’s pioneering telecoms operator, ntel (formerly NITEL), is eyeing a return from dormancy, with a preliminary target of first quarter of 2026.

According to a report from a tech platform, Technology Times, the return of the telco is underpinned by a strategic N30 billion injection from the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).

Once the dominant pre-GSM era provider with both wireline and mobile services via NITEL and Mtel, the operator fell into prolonged dormancy following the privatization of the Nigerian telecommunications sector.

After NatCom Development & Investment Limited acquired the business for $252.25 million in 2015, ntel struggled to regain traction. Now, AMCON is spearheading a revival, aiming to reintroduce ntel as an asset-light, infrastructure-centric competitor in Nigeria’s telecoms space.

According to the publication, a cornerstone of the revival plan is the appointment of Mr Soji Maurice-Diya, formerly CEO of American Tower Nigeria, to lead the company. He will succeed Mr Adrian Wood, a former chief executive of MTN Nigeria.

At the helm with extensive leadership experience across sectors such as telecom infrastructure (ATC), oil (ExxonMobil), tech (IBM), consulting (EY), and entrepreneurship (as co-founder of Hash App), Mr Maurice-Diya is expected to drive the execution of this turnaround plan.

AMCON’s intervention represents both a financial stabilization effort and a bid to rescue strategic national telecom assets, in line with targets set by President Bola Tinubu.

The telco holds a Unified Access Service licence from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). It is reportedly exploring a cost-efficient Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) model, potentially piggybacking on infrastructure from incumbent operators.

This choice arises from a sobering analysis: fully competing with Nigeria’s top mobile network operators (MTN, Airtel, Glo, and T2/9mobile), which collectively manage over 171 million lines. The telco would require an estimated N7.68 trillion ($5 billion) in capital. Instead, the MVNO approach allows ntel to focus on branding, customer experience, and differentiated services, particularly to youth, fintech, and rural prepaid segments without owning costly infrastructure, the publication analysed.

Despite previous setbacks, ntel retains key assets including spectrum holdings, fibre-optic infrastructure inherited from NITEL, and landing rights on international submarine cables. These which support a broadband-first strategy to help bridge Nigeria’s digital divide.