The Nigerian government and Meta have launched the Llama Impact Accelerator to promote AI innovation in agriculture, healthcare, security, and beyond using open-source tools

Llama Impact Accelerator has officially been launched in Nigeria through a strategic partnership between the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy and Meta, aiming to drive responsible artificial intelligence (AI) development in key national sectors.

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Announced on Tuesday in a statement by Ms Sade Dada, Head of Public Policy for Anglophone West Africa at Meta, the initiative seeks to harness open-source AI to tackle critical issues in agriculture, healthcare, security, and innovation.

The Minister, Dr Bosun Tijani, hailed the collaboration as a milestone in Nigeria’s ambition to build a resilient, inclusive AI ecosystem.

“The programme will equip innovators with vital tools and expert guidance,” Tijani said, stressing that AI is integral to the government’s strategy for addressing developmental challenges.

He added that the accelerator reflects a broader commitment to harness AI’s transformative potential by engaging government, academia, and civil society in shaping an equitable tech future.

Spearheaded by Meta in collaboration with the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR) and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the Llama Impact Accelerator will run over an eight-month period.

It will focus on early-stage startups using Meta’s open-source Llama models to build AI-driven solutions across four critical sectors: agriculture, healthcare, safety and security, and a ‘wild card’ category for high-impact innovations in other areas.

“The wild card category encourages bold and creative AI applications that could bring substantial impact to underserved sectors,” Dada explained.

The initiative kicks off with a six-week intensive incubation phase, during which participants will receive mentorship and technical training from leading experts in AI and digital technology.

This will be followed by a six-month support phase offering additional resources to help scale the selected solutions.

Dada said Meta is “thrilled” to support Nigeria’s innovation landscape, recognising the country’s deep pool of tech talent and its readiness to adopt open AI tools.

“The accelerator offers local talent the infrastructure, tools and mentorship needed to build responsible solutions using open-source models like Meta’s Llama,” she said.

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The Llama Impact Accelerator is expected to deepen Nigeria’s digital capabilities while enabling a new generation of problem-solvers to address local and regional development challenges with scalable, AI-powered solutions.