Applications have opened for the 2026 NITDA National AI Innovation Challenge, an initiative focused on advancing the technical development, adoption and practical use of Nigeria’s sovereign artificial intelligence capabilities.

Central to the challenge is N-ATLAS (Nigerian Atlas for Languages and AI at Scale), an open-source multilingual large language model developed for Nigerian use. Fine-tuned from Llama-3 8B, N-ATLAS supports Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo and Nigerian-accented English, including Automatic Speech Recognition for voice applications.

The challenge is inviting Nigerian innovators to develop developer tools, voice-first applications and sector-specific AI solutions using N-ATLAS.

The initiative seeks to deepen N-ATLAS through developer tools, fine-tuned models, datasets and ecosystem contributions, while encouraging the development of deployable, real-world applications, particularly voice-first services.

It will also promote AI applications in health, agriculture, education, legal services and financial inclusion, while connecting Nigerian universities, private-sector organisations and government through a structured innovation ecosystem. Another objective is to cultivate and showcase Nigerian AI talent nationally and internationally.

Applicants are required to select one of three problem statements: building tools that make N-ATLAS easier to develop with; creating applications for Nigerians who do not type; or fine-tuning N-ATLAS for high-impact Nigerian sectors.

All team members must be Nigerian citizens or registered Nigerian entities. Submissions must be original work that has not previously received an award in another competition, while each team can submit to only one problem statement.

Every entry must include a functioning technical artefact integrated with N-ATLAS, and applications and supporting materials must be submitted in English.

For academia and research applicants, the team lead must be enrolled in or employed by an accredited Nigerian university or research institution. An institutional endorsement letter signed by the Head of Department or equivalent is also required.

Individual innovation and enterprise applicants must be Nigerian citizens and at least 18 years old. Companies must be registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). For diaspora teams, at least 50% of members must be based in Nigeria.

All applicants will have access to technical clinics and office hours, N-ATLAS onboarding support, technical resources and reference materials, university roadshows and ecosystem briefings.

Shortlisted teams will receive N-ATLAS API credentials, compute credits through partner infrastructure, technical mentorship during the acceleration phase, and support to strengthen and harden their builds. They will also receive invitations to the Nigeria AI Innovators Summit, inclusion in the NITDA AI talent registry and priority consideration for government AI pilots.

Winners in the academia and research category will have opportunities for NCAIR research-lab partnership, N-ATLAS co-contributor credit, Federal Government recognition, publication and model-card support, and inclusion in the national AI researcher registry.

Innovation and enterprise winners will have access to government procurement pathway review, ONDI incubation support, investor introductions, N-ATLAS API integration support and inclusion in the national AI startup directory.

Applications opened on September 22, 2026, with the build and submission period running from September 22 to October 12. Administrative checks will take place on a rolling basis.

The N-ATLAS integration check is scheduled for October 15–17, followed by notification between October 16 and 20. The mentorship phase will run from October 25 to November 4, ahead of the Digital Nigeria Showcase scheduled for November 8–10, 2026.

Interested applicants can apply through the official NITDA National AI Innovation Challenge webpage:

Apply for the 2026 NITDA National AI Innovation Challenge

Source: msmeafricaonline.com