At a time when artificial intelligence (AI) is redefining global power structures, two top administrators at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) have called for a radical rethinking of how Africa engages with technology and international collaborations.
The Vice Chancellor, Professor Folasade Ogunsola, and the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Development Services), Professor Foluso Lesi, said Africa must stop positioning itself as a consumer of other people’s innovations and instead take ownership of its own technological destiny through equitable partnerships and locally driven innovation.
“Africa must not be a passive consumer in the AI revolution,” Ogunsola said. “We must be active contributors, thoughtful leaders, and builders of contextually relevant solutions. This is not optional. It is necessary.”
Both leaders spoke on Tuesday at the formal opening of the 5th International Week of the University of Lagos, where global scholars, diplomats, and senior industry executives gathered to explore the intersections of artificial intelligence, education, and global partnership.
Africa must build its own AI capacity
Ogunsola warned that if Africa fails to develop its own AI ecosystem, it risks becoming a “digital colony” in a world where algorithms, not armies, shape influence. She said the continent’s relationship with AI must be rooted in mutual growth, not in patronage or technological dependence.
“We are not here to be helped to catch up. We are here because African innovation offers solutions the world needs,” Ogunsola declared.
Citing UNILAG’s partnerships with institutions such as IMT Atlantique in France and the University of Alicante in Spain, Ogunsola said the model of engagement must shift from aid to reciprocity.
These collaborations, according to her, are increasingly driven by Africa’s contextual expertise, whether in tropical engineering, medicinal plants, or sustainable development.
She however acknowledged Africa’s weak data systems, unreliable energy supply, and underdeveloped policy frameworks as obstacles.
“AI consumes data and energy, two resources Africans are yet to appropriately manage,” she said, adding: “We must build the foundations — policies, data governance, and human capacity — that make AI work for us.”
Turning partnerships into measurable outcomes
Echoing the Vice Chancellor’s call, Professor Lesi challenged African universities to ensure their global partnerships produce tangible results rather than ceremonial agreements.
“What usually follows after the week comes to a close is the hard work of turning conversations into projects,” he said. “It is in that follow-through that the true test of this gathering lies.”
Lesi said UNILAG is deliberately aligning its international collaborations with research and industry needs, ensuring that mobility programmes and exchange initiatives lead to real-world impact.
“Our graduates step into projects ready to deliver value because they have already experienced immersion in the world of work before they finish their studies,” he said.
He further explained that through innovation hubs, design studios, and fabrication labs, the university now connects classroom ideas with prototypes and commercial applications as a pipeline that “turns intent into impact.”
AI grounded in African realities
Both speakers insisted that Africa’s AI must be built for Africa’s context to reflect it multilingual communities, irregular power, urban congestion, and rural healthcare gaps, and live beyond merely transplanting the solutions from Silicon Valley.
Lesi described UNILAG’s approach as interdisciplinary and ethical saying that artificial intelligence sits inside this frame as a practical toolset and not an abstract promise.
“Projects are tested with users and audited for ethics. Engineers work with linguists, clinicians with social scientists, so that technology answers to people and places, not the other way round,” the professor of Paediatrics said.
Meanwhile, Ogunsola shared examples of students developing AI-powered diagnostic tools that function in low-connectivity areas, and machine-learning systems for maternal health in rural clinics with unstable electricity, describing these as innovations that ‘the West needs to study.’
Partnerships in co-creation
The two leaders’ remarks converged on the point that Africa’s inclusion in the AI revolution must be equitable, intentional, and value-driven.
Professor Lesi stressed that partnerships must now be built on trust, shared responsibility, and measurable societal benefit.
“Partnerships are not only about projects and funding,” she said. “They are about futures shaped together.”
This was as Professor Ogunsola went further, arguing that Africa’s voice is indispensable in shaping the global AI agenda.
“The future of AI in Africa cannot be built without Africans,” she said. “And AI for the world cannot be built without African insights,” she said.
Both scholars urged their peers and international partners to see African universities as co-creators of global knowledge, not junior collaborators.
“Let this be the beginning of a new era, where Africa is not an afterthought in global innovation, but a pioneer of it,” Ogunsola said.
Other participants at the event included Africa Lead at OpenAI, Emmanuel Lubanzadio; the Managing Director and Head of Sub-Saharan Africa at the Bank of America, Yvonne Ike; Nigerian entrepreneur and Founding Partner of Future Africa, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, who was represented by Olubunmi Ajala, a Senior Special Adviser to the Minister; and the Director ICT at the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Mr. Bala Yinusa, among others.
