Apply for National AI Innovation Challenge 2026

Job Description

The National AI Innovation Challenge 2026 is a national programme that aims to strengthen the ideation, development, adaptability and foster the practical use of Nigeria’s sovereign AI capabilities.

The Nigeria Atlas for Languages and AI at Scale (N-ATLAS) is actually the first major open-source multilingual large language model in Nigeria. Currently, it supports all major languages including Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo and pidgin English.

Why National AI Innovation Challenge 2026?

The major reasons for this challenge are as follows:

• To foster the building of N-ATLAS through working developer tools, fine-tune models, datasets and also contribution from the larger community/ecosystem.
• Make it usable through applications people can deploy now especially in voice-first services.
• To make it open to sectors that matters such as health, agriculture, education, legal services and financial institutions.
• To bring universities, private companies in Nigeria and even the government into a structure innovative ecosystem.
• To train Nigerian AI talent and put their work in front of the right audiences both in nationally and internationally.

When is 2026 Registration Starting & Closing?

Registration for the National AI innovation challenge is starting from September 22, 2026 and is closing on October 12, 2026.

Categories of National AI Innovation Challenge

Interested participants are to select from one of the problems below and make their submission accordingly.

1. Developer Infrastructure

Those in this category are to build any tool of their choose that makes N-ATLAS easy to build with. As an open-source and free to download, the gap to be filled is a Nigerian-maintained tooling that will foster integrating the model, testing it, adapting and deploying it after download.

For instance:

• A Python or JavaScript SDK that wraps N-ATLAS endpoints in simple, readable calls.
• A browser-based playground that allows trying the model and inspecting feedback.
• A bilingual developer documentation with working examples.

This category is most suitable for Teams with expertise in developer tooling, model integration, documentation or AI engineering.

2. Voice First Access

Build applications for Nigerians that are reluctant to type or do not type at all.

As earlier indicated, N-ATLAS includes ASR capability for Nigerian languages (Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo and Pidgin). The issue here is translating these into useful and accessible services for daily usage.

Channels Delivery

• WhatsApp voice note services
• USSD-based voice applications
• Interactive Voice Response systems
• Low-bandwidth mobile applications

This is most suitable for teams capable of building accessible digital services and testing with real target users.

3. Sectoral Fine-Tuning for High Impact Usage

General purpose models actually become and works better in a specific field once they have been adapted to its terminology, data and real-world setting.

The target sectors for this fine tuning are; Education, Primary healthcare and community health, smallholder agriculture, legal rights and civic literacy etc.

Requirements

• Fine-tune N-ATLAS for a single, clearly defined domain
• Show measured improvement over base N-ATLAS
• Deploy it behind a documented API that another developer can use

This is most suitable for teams with experience in model fine-tuning, dataset development, benchmarking and evaluation.

General Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must be Nigerian citizens.
• Startups or other enterprises applying must be registered in Nigeria.
• Submission is to be made for only one (1) problem statement.
• Every submission must include a functioning technical artefact integrated with N-ATLAS
• Applications and supporting materials must be in English

Participation Requirements

Either of these tracks can apply for any of the problem category specified above but the major difference is documentation when registering.

1. Academic & Research

• This is for university research teams or academic AI labs with at least 2 – 5 members.
• There must be one (1) enrolled student or postgraduate researcher
• A faculty supervisor
• Institutional endorsement letter from Head of Department

2. Innovation & Enterprise

• This is for startups, technology companies or social enterprises etc.
• Must have a minimum of two (2) – five (5) members.
• Must have CAC certificate & registration documents.
• Must have valid ID for individual applicants.
• A minimum of 50% of team member must be in Nigeria.

Deadline: October 12, 2026