Five officials of Nigeria’s state-owned international broadcaster, Voice of Nigeria (VON), have successfully completed a continent-wide Artificial Intelligence (AI) governance fellowship alongside 55 policymakers and institutional leaders from 22 African countries, organisers said.
The four-month AI Literacy Fellowship for African Policymakers, organised by the OpenSchool Initiative, brought together senior public officials, regulators, academics, civil society leaders, and media professionals to strengthen Africa’s capacity to develop responsible and inclusive AI policies.
The VON participants included Mr. Kassim Umar, Assistant Director (IT); Shu’aibu Othman Sambo, Assistant Director (Programmes); Tukur Garba Arab, Chief Producer (Languages); Abdul Mohammed Isa, Chief News Editor; and Fatima Abdulkadir Jidda, Assistant Chief Data Processing Officer.
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The programme was delivered in collaboration with Cosmopolitan University Abuja, System Strategy and Policy Lab, and Tanzeel College International, with technical contributions from industry and academia.
Professionals linked to Microsoft’s Change Agents initiative, Google, universities, and policy-focused organisations also served as resource persons during the fellowship.
At the closing ceremony, the Managing Director of the Microsoft Africa Development Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, Catherine Muraga,, urged African institutions to take an active role in shaping AI governance frameworks.
“Artificial intelligence must be guided by values, context and purpose,” she said, noting that Africa has an opportunity to influence how the technology is governed globally.
During the programme, fellows collaborated in multidisciplinary teams on policy-focused capstone projects covering public service delivery, media, education, climate policy, and health.
Organisers emphasised that graduates are expected to apply their training to policy development, institutional reforms, and public-interest communication in their respective countries, as AI technologies increasingly shape governance and information systems across the continent.