 | WEEKLY EDITION Issue 002 9 November 2026 |
Ten things in AI worth your time. |
IN LAST WEEK’S POLL, WE ASKED: How confident are you that you can spot AI-generated election content?  01 The Big Story Elections & deepfakes 2027: INEC warns Nigerians against AI-generated fake postponement noticesThe commission fears AI audio or video timed for the eve of the 16 January vote. INEC chairman Joash Amupitan has warned that AI-generated audio or video could be used to announce a false postponement just before the 2027 elections, when there is little time to check what is real. Campaigns close 24 hours before polling, on 14 January for the presidential vote. INEC says voter education will shift from “how to vote” to “how to verify”, including short Pidgin and local-language voice notes on WhatsApp. This is a warning, not a report of an actual fake. The rule for readers is simple: a date changes only when INEC’s own channels say so. |
 Duration: 00:13:30 02 The Listen Jobs & the economy Will AI create jobs in Africa, or take them?The World Bank’s Africa chief economist answers listeners’ questions. In this episode of People First, host Rama George puts questions sent in by listeners across Africa to Andrew Dabalen, the World Bank’s chief economist for the region. Drawing on the Bank’s October report on AI readiness, he argues AI is more likely to enhance skills than to replace jobs, if governments invest first in electricity, connectivity, skills and good rules. |
THE PAIR CHECK A voice can be copied. Before you act on an election announcement sent as a voice note or video, check INEC’s website or verified social media accounts. |
 Duration: 00:02:33 03 The Watch AI & elections INEC chairman: AI is “not an enemy of democracy”Hear INEC’s case for using AI, and the risks it says come with it. At a
national summit in Abuja on 2 November, INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan and other
key stakeholders discussed how AI could support voter registration, logistics
and the identification of duplicate records. They also raised concerns about
cloned voices, fake videos and the impersonation of election officials. |
 04 The Read Election integrity Two $1bn AI-ready data centres planned for NigeriaWhere Nigerians’ data lives, and who profits, starts with buildings like these. INFRAGORA Global Capital, a South African investment firm, plans to start building two AI-ready data centres in Nigeria in the second and third quarters of 2027, in a project estimated at $650 million to $1 billion. TechCabal explains why demand for computing power is rising and what it means for local jobs and data storage. These are plans, not buildings: no construction has begun. |
 05 The Evidence Education & skills Teach the skills AI can’t replace, says a 37-country studyCreativity and critical thinking should be timetabled and graded, the report argues. A report by HP, the Global Learning Council and the Education Leaders Forum draws on 58 education experts and an online survey of 6,206 students in 37 countries. It recommends that schools should fund and assess creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration, not leave them to electives. It warns that AI in classrooms could widen inequality unless delivery suits low-resource schools. The survey reflects students who responded online, the Nigerian sample size is not given, and HP sells education technology. |
A voice note says the election has been postponed. What would you do first?
Choose one answer. Your vote is submitted here without leaving the page.
 06 The Tool Farming & local languages Four Kano schoolgirls build a farming assistantAgroLens AI also checks market prices and connects farmers with buyers. Four students of Sunflower School, Kano, developed AgroLens AI, winning a national student entrepreneurship competition. Premium Times reports that the platform offers crop disease and pest detection, market information and voice features in English, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and Nigerian Pidgin. Its language choices address a practical question: how can a farmer get useful information when speaking is easier than typing? |
 07 The Life Everyday safety Scammers are now hacking minds, not phones, NITDA warnsThe agency says AI fakes target your feelings before your passwords. NITDA’s director-general, Kashifu Abdullahi, has warned that AI-driven misinformation, deepfakes and automated cyber threats could be used to manipulate Nigerians before the 2027 elections. Attackers, he said, increasingly target human psychology rather than computer systems. One habit helps: when a message makes you afraid, angry or rushed, stop. Check who sent it and whether a trusted source confirms it before you act or forward. |
THE PAIR HABIT If a message makes you scared, angry or rushed, wait ten minutes and check the source before you forward it. |
 08 The Initiative AI in practice Five civic groups will use AI to read election result sheetsThe aim is to spot figures that don’t add up while results are still coming in. Dataphyte Foundation, Yiaga Africa, BudgIT Foundation, the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development and DEAN Initiative launched the Nigeria Election Data Observatory in Abuja on 27 October. They plan to deploy more than 4,000 observers and use AI-powered text recognition to turn result-sheet images from INEC’s IReV portal into data, flagging possible discrepancies for human checking. The system has not yet been tested at a national election. The lesson for other groups: AI helps sort large volumes of evidence, but people still verify. |
 09 The Opportunity Board Learning Start a free AI course through Google’s new Africa hubLearn at your own pace, even with patchy data. Google’s new Skilling Africa hub brings AI and digital-skills courses into one place, with an AI study companion and offline access. It is free and open to Nigerians with a Google sign-in. Choose a course that suits your current level, and treat a badge as a first step rather than a job guarantee. Check each course’s requirements and any external certificate terms before enrolling. ALSO ON THE BOARD Apply for Carnegie Mellon University Africa’s free AI certificate Six online courses in Python, machine learning and generative AI, free for selected applicants. You need maths and programming basics, a computer, internet and about five to six hours a week. |
 10 The People Health & AI The Nigerian helping take a kidney-health assistant to usersIbrahim Oladigbolu works on the less visible side of an AI product. Ibrahim Oladigbolu, a Nigerian professional based in Warsaw, works with renal-care provider Diaverum on kidney.com, an AI assistant launched in May 2026 to help people understand chronic kidney disease. In PUNCH’s profile he describes moving from marketing into product, safety and multilingual communication. His story shows the work around an AI product beyond the code. It is his own account: it does not show that he built the system alone, and the tool offers education, not diagnosis. |
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