Prof. Damuut, in inaugural lecture, urges investment in local computing power, talent and governance, says region’s AI future is “a choice, not an inevitability”

By Sendi Dauda and Nanshin Damuut.

A Professor of Computational Intelligence at Plateau State University, Bokkos (PLASU), Prof. Luhutyit Peter Damuut, has warned that nations of the Global South, including Nigeria, risk deepening their technological dependence on wealthier countries unless they invest urgently in locally owned artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

Delivering the university’s 2nd Inaugural Lecture on Wednesday at the Caleb Mutfwang Auditorium, Main Campus, Bokkos, Prof. Damuut said developing nations must choose between becoming co-creators of AI and remaining consumers of technology built elsewhere. The lecture was titled “An Expose’ on AI in the Global South: 21st Century Challenges and Opportunities.”

He argued that without “strategic and immediate investment” in local infrastructure, specialised skills and inclusive governance, AI could widen global inequalities and create “a new era of digital dependency.” The lecture’s stated target is “sovereign AI,” meaning technology that is locally owned, culturally relevant and economically beneficial to the people of the Global South.

From access gap to capability gap

Prof. Damuut said the digital divide has moved beyond the question of who owns a computer. It is now a gap in capability, that is, who can build and control AI. He described a “three-level divide” covering access to connectivity and electricity, access to local-language data, and access to the computing power needed to train AI models, which he said is concentrated in the Global North.

He warned that the divide risks “becoming permanent even beyond the 21st century” unless policy-makers and state actors act without further delay.

According to the lecture, AI could become an extractive tool, with data harvested from the Global South while the economic benefits and intellectual property remain in the North. He called this risk “algorithmic colonization,” citing the weak legal protection and limited enforcement capacity of many Southern countries. He said this could make them a “testing ground” for high-risk AI experiments that would be unlawful in the West.

Evidence presented

Prof. Damuut said rural electricity access in Sub-Saharan Africa stands at about 30 per cent, while internet costs can consume 15 per cent of average monthly income. He added that the informal sector accounts for up to 80 per cent of the labour market in many African and South Asian countries, leaving workers exposed to automation.

On talent, he said high-potential engineers in Nigeria, India and Brazil are frequently recruited by Big Tech firms in the United States and Europe. This, he said, results in “digital extraction,” as the Global South supplies raw talent while intellectual property and high-value companies are built and taxed in the North.

He also warned of a “jobless growth” scenario, in which economic output rises through AI efficiency while unemployment grows as entry-level jobs such as call-centre and data-entry work are automated.

Lessons from India, Brazil and Nigeria

The lecture was not only a warning. Prof. Damuut presented case studies to show how AI can serve development.

In India, he said, the BHASHINI language platform, which provides real-time translation and voice assistance for public services, now supports over 36 languages for text and 22 for voice, and handles more than 100 million inferences monthly. He said it was stress-tested at the 2025 Maha Kumbh gathering in 11 languages. His lesson was that AI succeeds when built as “Digital Public Infrastructure,” a modular, open-source tool for everyone rather than a closed proprietary product.

In Brazil, he said, PrevisIA, developed by Imazon with Microsoft, predicts areas at high risk of deforestation before clearing occurs. He said it identified over 15,000 square kilometres of high-risk areas and allowed law enforcement to intervene in 71 per cent of those cases, in a year Brazil recorded an 11.08 per cent fall in Amazon deforestation.

On Nigeria, he cited maternal health research in Adamawa State in which neural network and random forest models achieved 87 per cent accuracy in classifying the quality of maternal care available. He added that a 2026 review found a persistent “translation gap,” because poor roads and limited rural clinic staffing prevent the models from reducing deaths. AI, he said, “can provide the ‘intellectual’ map for development, but it cannot replace the physical foundations (roads, clinics, electricity).”

Recommendations

Prof. Damuut’s strategy centres on four areas, mostly directed at governments and policy-makers.

Infrastructure: He urged investment in local computing, cloud capacity and sustainable energy, pointing to Brazil’s planned R$23 billion for data centres through 2028. He also advocated open-source models to lower the cost of entry for start-ups.

Human capital: He called for targeted AI research funding and early exposure for young people to AI as a tool for creation, citing India’s AI FutureSkills initiative and Nigeria’s Start-Up Digital Innovation Academy.

Partnerships and regulation: He recommended public-private-community partnerships, regulatory sandboxes of the kind used in Kenya and Nigeria, and applied research centres in sectors such as agriculture and healthcare.

Data and ethics: He backed data sovereignty, in line with the African Union’s Continental AI Strategy, so that local data stays in Africa to train models in indigenous languages. He also cited Brazil’s risk-based approach, which requires audits and impact assessments for high-risk systems.

He further proposed South-South cooperation, with countries sharing regulatory frameworks and localised small language models to resist “digital extraction.”

Wider significance

Prof. Damuut described AI as “not a magic bullet but a force multiplier.” He said it can scale scarce expertise in healthcare and education, support precision agriculture, and help countries “leapfrog” older infrastructure, much as Africa moved from landlines to mobile phones.

“The primary challenge is not the technology itself, but the strategic autonomy required to govern it,” he said.

He ended on an optimistic note: “The future of AI in the global South remains a choice, not an inevitability.” Citing India’s AI Impact Summit, the first of its kind in the Global South, he said the region “will no longer wait for the future to unfold but it is actively coding it already.”

An inaugural lecture is a formal public lecture in which a newly appointed professor presents his or her scholarship to the university community and the public. Prof. Damuut was confirmed a full professor with effect from 1 October 2022 by the PLASU Senate, following unanimous positive external assessment reports. He currently serves as Dean of the Faculty of Computing.

In his tributes, he thanked the current Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Shedrack Best, for trusting him to handle the new Faculty of Computing and for making the lecture possible. He also thanked a former Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Malau Matur, for facilitating his external assessment for the professorship.

Author: MCCDA