Stakeholders at the 2025 edition of the AI Forum Nigeria have urged Nigerian enterprises and small businesses to accelerate their transition toward an AI-first future. The call was made after a full day of strategic dialogue, high-level sessions and practical insights at the Lagos Oriental Hotel, where the event — organised by OLAK Events Management — convened senior decision-makers from business, technology and government to examine how artificial intelligence is reshaping enterprise transformation in the country.
The forum, themed “Goodbye Digital Transformation, Hello AI-First Business,” drew strong participation from Nigeria’s leading corporates, innovators and public institutions, underscoring the nation’s growing commitment to AI as the engine of future competitiveness. Discussions explored how organisations can move beyond traditional digitisation and adopt AI-first structures that deliver higher efficiency, stronger decision-making and sustainable market differentiation.
The event featured an impressive lineup of thought leaders who shared practical, future-focused perspectives on enterprise readiness and national capability.
Alaa Dalghan, CEO of Cognit DX, delivered the keynote address, urging Nigerian organisations to shift from experimental AI projects to enterprise-wide architectures capable of scaling intelligence across operations.
During the CEO and Business Leaders Panel, Obafemi Banigbe, CEO of T2mobile, stressed the importance of disciplined leadership, efficient execution and robust process redesign as foundations for an AI-first strategy.
Rack Centre CEO Lars Christer Johannisson highlighted the central role of data centres in enabling AI at scale, noting that reliable infrastructure, local cloud capacity and resilient data ecosystems will determine how quickly enterprises can deploy AI across key functions.
Other key voices include Kehinde Ogundare, Country Manager for Zoho Corporation Nigeria, who shared practical reflections on how small, medium and large enterprises can adopt AI without complexity or excessive cost. His message reinforced that the path to AI first is not reserved for large organisations alone, but open to every business willing to start with focused, strategic use cases.
The forum concluded with a shared commitment to deepening cross-sector collaboration to strengthen data infrastructure, governance standards, talent development and responsible adoption.
Leave a comment