Artificial intelligence and machine learning opportunities

National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA)

NITDA National AI Innovation Challenge 2026 for Nigerian Builders on N-ATLAS

The 2026 NITDA National AI Innovation Challenge asks Nigerian developers, students and companies to build on N-ATLAS, Nigeria’s first open-source multilingual large language model. There are three problem statements covering developer tooling, voice-first applications and sector-specific fine-tuning. Applications run from 22 September to 12 October 2026 at 11:59 PM WAT, and the build window is the same period.

Eligibility: All team members are Nigerian citizens or the applicant is a registered Nigerian entity

Timeline

October 12, 2026

Location

Nigeria

Funding or benefit

No cash award is published for this challenge. The value is in kind and staged: shortlisted teams receive N-ATLAS API credentials and compute credits through partner infrastructure plus technical mentorship, while winners receive track-specific support such as a research-lab partnership with NCAIR, co-contributor credit on N-ATLAS, publication and model-card support, a government procurement pathway review, ONDI incubation support and investor introductions.