AI Safety Nigeria (AISN) has been named the 2026 winner of Best AI Governance & Safety Advocacy Company, Nigeria, at the African Excellence Awards. This recognition highlights the organisation’s work to build local capacity, public awareness, and policy expertise around AI safety in Nigeria.
The award, presented by MEA Markets, published by AI Global Media, marks external recognition of AISN’s work less than two years after its founding. The African Excellence Awards, now in its ninth year, recognises organisations, leaders, and professionals contributing to progress across Africa’s rapidly evolving markets.
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Founding and Mission
Founded in August 2025 by Dr. Ayuba Tuodolo, AI Safety Nigeria is a civil society organisation focused exclusively on AI safety, governance, and AI literacy. Based in Abuja, the organisation was established around a simple but increasingly important question.
The question is: how can Africa help shape the rules and systems governing AI instead of simply adopting frameworks developed elsewhere?
AISN argues that AI safety discussions have historically had limited African representation, despite the continent’s rapid adoption of AI and the significant governance challenges that come with it.
Its work therefore focuses on building the technical, policy, and public-literacy capacity needed for Nigeria and other African countries to participate meaningfully in the global AI safety conversation.
Building an African AI Safety Community
In roughly a year, AISN has grown from a newly established organisation into a growing AI safety and literacy movement, with programmes spanning research, education, community building, and policy. Its AI Safety and Governance Fellowship became the first programme of its kind in Africa, attracting more than 250 applications globally.
The organisation also runs its Learn & Launch Series, a monthly public programme exploring live issues in AI safety and governance, including AI bias, transparency, control, and corrigibility. The series is run in partnership with the American Corner Abuja and the U.S. Mission Nigeria, with plans to expand its reach beyond Abuja.
Its first AI Safety Reading Group further broadened access to AI safety knowledge through a free, six-week virtual programme. This initiative brought together students, researchers, policymakers, professionals, and AI enthusiasts to examine foundational AI safety literature through an African lens.
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AI Safety Nigeria: Scaling Impact and Summit Preparation
AISN has also used convening as a way to move AI safety discussions beyond theory. Its first AI Safety Summit, held in November 2025, brought stakeholders together under the theme “Building a Safe & Inclusive AI Future for Africa.”
The organisation is now preparing for its second annual summit, “The Human Algorithm: Putting People in the Center of AI,” scheduled for November 4–5, 2026, in Abuja. Beyond its educational programmes, AISN has been involved in efforts to develop practical approaches to AI accountability and regulation in Africa.
In August 2026, the organisation convened a technical workshop titled “When AI Fails: Building Accountability, Safety, and Trust in African Machine-Learning Systems.” The workshop brought together physical and virtual participants and resulted in the African AI Accountability and Trust Playbook and the founding charter of the Trusted AI for Africa Network.
AISN also co-convened a high-level stakeholder roundtable on Nigeria’s AI regulation and digital policy with Digital Policy Alert, bringing together stakeholders to discuss the country’s evolving approach to AI governance. For AISN, the African Excellence Award comes at a significant point in its development as it scales its programmes.
The recognition places a spotlight on a broader shift taking place across Africa’s technology ecosystem. It is a transition where the conversation is moving beyond how quickly the continent can adopt AI to how safely, responsibly, and locally it can shape its future with the technology.
About AI Safety Nigeria
AI Safety Nigeria is a locally led civil society organisation dedicated to AI safety, governance, and AI literacy.
Founded in August 2025, the organisation works across research, education, community building, and policy to promote the safe, ethical, and responsible development and deployment of AI in Nigeria and Africa.
About Tribe Techie
Tribe Techie is a technology and startup media platform that tells the stories shaping Africa’s technology ecosystem. Through news, insights, interviews, and thought leadership, Tribe Techie covers the people, companies, ideas, and emerging trends driving innovation across Africa and beyond.
The platform is committed to making technology stories accessible, relevant, and useful to founders, investors, builders, professionals, and anyone interested in the future of Africa’s digital economy.
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