The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is set to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) frameworks to organise ideas generated by Nigerian youths into policy themes including digital innovation, job creation, climate action and security.

The initiative is designed to create a digital link between youth participation and public policy by using technology to collect, analyse and structure contributions from young Nigerians.

Kashifu Inuwa, Director-General, NITDA, announced the planned deployment during the opening of the maiden National Youth Conference at the National Counter Terrorism Centre in Abuja, where he described Nigerian youths as one of the country’s most strategic assets.

Inuwa said social media platforms including X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok have given young Nigerians unprecedented channels to express their views, identify problems and propose solutions. However, he said the volume of content generated across these platforms can make it difficult to identify and organise ideas that could inform public policy.

NITDA to capture and organise youth contributions with AI

Inuwa said social media platforms including X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok have given young Nigerians unprecedented channels to express their views, identify problems and propose solutions. However, he said the volume of content generated across these platforms can make it difficult to identify and organise ideas that could inform public policy.

NITDA is therefore positioning the AI framework as the technology layer for capturing and organising those contributions, rather than allowing potentially actionable ideas to remain scattered across different conversations and platforms.

The framework will categorise submissions according to themes such as digital innovation, job creation, climate action and security, enabling contributions to be organised into structured information for consideration within the policy process.

The system is also expected to create an auditable trail for ideas generated during the youth engagement process, allowing contributions to be captured and preserved as they move from discussions towards official policy channels.

“Inuwa assured the audience that all their discussions would be captured and preserved by technology, committing NITDA’s full support across the entire process,” the agency said in a statement.

The technology-enabled engagement will extend beyond the physical conference in Abuja through virtual zonal sessions scheduled to run from October 5 to 17, 2026.

The sessions are expected to enable young Nigerians across all 360 federal constituencies, as well as those in the diaspora, to participate in discussions on the country’s future without travelling to Abuja.

This gives the AI deployment a wider role in the youth engagement process, with NITDA and the Ministry of Youth Development expected to process contributions from both physical and virtual sessions and organise them around relevant policy themes.

The approach addresses a practical challenge associated with large-scale public participation: how to convert thousands of individual views and proposals into structured information that policymakers can review and use.

For young Nigerians, the initiative represents an attempt to connect the digital spaces where they already communicate with a more formal mechanism for contributing to government policy discussions.

Rather than relying solely on conventional conference participation, the planned virtual sessions could allow contributions from young people across different locations and from the Nigerian diaspora to enter the same technology-supported process.

The initiative also reflects the expanding use of AI and other digital technologies within government processes, particularly where large volumes of information need to be collected, classified and analysed, according to NITDA.

The tech agency’s role will be to provide the technical infrastructure for capturing and organising the contributions, while the Ministry of Youth Development and other relevant government stakeholders will be responsible for taking the resulting inputs through the appropriate policy process.

The agency’s deployment will cover both the physical National Youth Conference and the virtual engagement programme, extending the technology-supported consultation to young Nigerians across the country and abroad.

The central test of the initiative will ultimately be whether ideas generated through the process can be translated into identifiable policy inputs and whether young participants can see a clear path between their contributions and subsequent government action.