The US invents. China scales. Europe regulates. Others record “present” and consume. But some EU tech leaders do not just want to regulate: “Christian Klein, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Software Giant SAP, has warned that Europe risks falling behind the U.S. and China, following plans to regulate the Artificial Intelligence (AI) industry.”

“If you only regulate technology in Europe, how can our startups here in Europe compete against the other startups in China, Asia, and the US?”

While acknowledging the importance of addressing Al’s risks, Klein argued that regulating the technology in its early stages would be a mistake. He emphasized the need for Al use cases to deliver positive outcomes for employees and society.

“It’s very important that how we train our algorithms, the Al use cases we embed into the businesses of our customers, they need to deliver the right outcome for the employees, for the society. If you only regulate technology in Europe, how can our startups here in Europe, how can they compete against the other startups in Chima, in Asia, and the U.S.? Especially for the startup scene here in Europe, it’s very important to think about the outcome of the technology but not to regulate the AI technology itself”, he added.

For Nigeria, we need a national vision on semiconductors and microelectronics, and it is time to set up something like MOSIS or Europractice. Largely, a foundry which all universities in Nigeria will key-in, making it possible for students to experience end-to-end chip design, from schematics to test chip from the foundry.

Our knowledge capacity is the edge we have now in West Africa. I just checked 1 CFA franc, the currency used in Cotonou, Lome and most Francophone countries, the exchange rate with Naira is now N2.73. In 2015, it was 25 kobo. Good people, that is more than 10x appreciation in a decade. Of course, that has also given Nigeria a small positive balance of trade as people from Cotonou, Lome, etc now come to Nigeria to buy things as they have a strong currency!

To win the future, Nigeria needs to move on the path of innovation. Possibly, we can join the scaling, and not just wait at the consumption phase. It is about time.

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