The National Board for Technical Education has unveiled a new National Diploma curriculum in Artificial Intelligence for polytechnics across Nigeria, designed to equip graduates with foundational digital skills ahead of enrolment into Higher National Diploma programmes in the field.

The Executive Secretary of NBTE, Prof Idris Bugaje, announced this on Thursday in Abuja, stating that the curriculum was developed in response to growing global demand for AI skills and the discovery that students entering the existing HND AI programme lacked adequate foundational knowledge.

Bugaje explained that the HND in AI had been introduced years earlier, but an internal review revealed a significant curriculum mismatch. He stated, "We realised that only about 20% of what students studied in HND Computer Science was relevant to HND AI, while 80% has become general knowledge. We decided to do a whole curriculum at national diploma level, right from the beginning on AI, and that is the product we are unveiling today."

The NBTE boss disclosed that lecturers at institutions intending to offer the programme would undergo compulsory five day training in Abuja and Lagos before commencement, covering AI concepts and technologies absent from conventional computer science programmes.

Bugaje also revealed that the board had reduced curriculum development costs by about 50% by using AI tools. He noted, "AI generated the zero draft of our latest curriculum, while it is also being used to produce digital courseware for distance learning programmes. Artificial intelligence is no longer the future; it is already the tool of today and will become even more indispensable."

He disclosed that several countries had approached NBTE to establish partnerships for deploying Nigerian AI graduates to address skill shortages abroad, with discussions ongoing with Denmark on an arrangement similar to an existing programme for electrical engineering graduates in Denmark and Poland.

The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency, Kashifu Abdullahi, represented by Senior Manager Yakubu Musa, commended the initiative and called for AI education to be integrated across disciplines including engineering, agriculture, business and architecture, alongside continuous curriculum reviews to keep pace with technological change.

The first Nigerian PhD holder in Artificial Intelligence, Amina Magaji, urged stakeholders to prioritise inclusive AI education and emphasised that continuous learning and ethical application of the technology were essential for Nigeria to fully harness opportunities in the digital economy.