Nigeria and 10 oda African countries don spend at least $2.1bn on artificial intelligence-powered surveillance technologies, with Nigeria comot as di continent’s biggest buyer, one new report don show.
According to di report, Nigeria alone spend over $470m on AI-enabled facial recognition and automatic number plate recognition systems.
Di report, wey di Institute of Development Studies produce and dem title am “Smart City Surveillance in Africa: Mapping Chinese AI Surveillance Across 11 Countries,” dem release am for March 2026.
Di study, wey dem describe as di most comprehensive account of smart city surveillance for Africa, examine deployments for Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
“Dis level of expenditure translate into average spend wey dey around $240m per country.
“Nigeria alone don document public expenditure of $470m for AI-enabled facial recognition and ANPR, wey make am di continent’s biggest buyer of smart city surveillance technologies,” di report tok.
E add sey di actual spending across di region fit dey significantly higher because of secrecy wey dey surround surveillance budgets and incomplete public financial records.
“For all cases, we know sey di real total dey significantly higher because surveillance spending often dey secret; no figures dey available for two of di 11 countries wey dem study; di public accounts for di oda nine countries no complete; and dis study only include 11 out of Africa’s 55 countries,” di researchers note.
Di report tok sey most of di surveillance infrastructure wey dem deploy across di countries na Chinese firms supply am and dem finance am through soft loans from Chinese banks.
