Nigeria has emerged as the market with the highest rate of weekly artificial intelligence (AI) usage globally, with 91 per cent of citizens surveyed saying they use AI at least once a week, according to a new report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
The finding places Nigeria well ahead of the global average of 64per centt and highlights the country’s rapidly growing adoption of AI as citizens increasingly turn to technology for information, productivity, and everyday tasks.
The findings are contained in BCG’s latest Digital Government Citizen Survey, *Citizens Are Open to Public AI Services. Governments Must Seize the Opportunity*, its eighth biennial report on citizens’ experiences and expectations of digital government services.
The survey, BCG’s largest to date, captures the views of citizens across 44 countries representing 8 per cent of OECD countries and approximately per cent of the world’s population. In Africa, respondents were drawn from Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa.
Nigeria records strong AI opti.mism
Nigeria also ranks among the world’s most AI-optimistic markets, with 61 per cent of respondents saying the benefits of AI outweigh its risks.
The level of optimism comes as Nigerians demonstrate significantly higher familiarity with AI than the global population. Eighty percent of Nigerian respondents described themselves as AI proficient, compared with a global average of 63 percent, while four in five said they were intermediate or higher-level AI users.
BCG said the growing familiarity with AI is closely linked to greater confidence in the technology. Globally, people with expert knowledge of AI are almost seven times more likely to believe its benefits outweigh its risks than people with no experience using AI.
For Nigeria, the figures point to a population that is increasingly prepared to interact with AI-powered services, creating a significant opportunity for government agencies to incorporate the technology into public service delivery.
“Nigeria continues to stand out as one of the world’s most digitally engaged societies,” said Olayinka Majekodunmi, managing director and partner at BCG Lagos.
“Most notably, Nigerians are among the most active users of AI, with an extraordinary 91% of respondents using AI weekly, the highest rate of any market surveyed and far above the 64% global average.”
Digital government adoption remains above global average
Despite rising expectations, Nigerians’ satisfaction with government digital services has weakened.
Net satisfaction with government digital services fell by five percentage points from 2024 to 64 percent in 2026. However, the figure remains marginally above the global average of 63 per cent.
At the same time, Nigeria recorded a 50 per cent adoption rate for digital government services, substantially higher than the global average of 3 per cent and among the highest levels recorded in the survey.
The combination of high usage and declining satisfaction suggests that Nigerians are not necessarily demanding less digital government; rather, they are becoming more demanding about the quality of the services available to them.
Nigerian citizens still rate government digital services seven percentage points higher than comparable private-sector digital offerings. However, that advantage has narrowed considerably from 22 percentage points in 2024, indicating that improvements in private-sector digital experiences are rapidly raising citizens’ expectations.
Only per cent of Nigerian users said they experienced no problems during interactions with digital government services, although this was an improvement of five percentage points from 2024.
Nigerians want AI to improve public services.
BCG said citizens are increasingly comfortable with AI moving beyond basic information provision to performing tasks and helping deliver public services.
Globally, respondents expressed growing support for AI to handle routine tasks, personalise services and improve interactions with government.
Nigeria appears particularly well positioned for this shift given its exceptionally high AI engagement.
“While citizens’ expectations of government digital services are rising, adoption remains significantly higher than global norms, reflecting both growing digital access and a strong appetite for technology-enabled interactions,” Majekodunmi said.
She added that the level of AI engagement presents a major opportunity for public institutions to use the technology to improve services, productivity and citizen outcomes.
Despite their enthusiasm for AI, Nigerians are not calling for government services to become fully autonomous.
BCG found that citizens increasingly want human oversight when AI is used in government, particularly where decisions are complex or have significant consequences.
Across the Middle East and Africa, 78 per cent of respondents said they were comfortable with direct AI involvement in service delivery, the highest proportion among the regions surveyed.
The region also recorded the strongest support for AI agents, with one in three respondents saying they were comfortable with autonomous AI agents handling a wide range of tasks.
Nigeria’s preferred safeguards reflect this demand for transparency and accountability. Public performance reporting was the most popular safeguard, cited by 39 per cent of Nigerian respondents. Independent audits followed at 3 per cent, while per cent favoured human-review appeals.
This suggests that Nigerians’ enthusiasm for AI does not translate into unconditional trust. Citizens want to see measurable evidence that AI-enabled government services are working and that mechanisms exist to challenge or review decisions.
Job losses top Nigeria’s AI concerns
The biggest obstacle to wider acceptance of government AI adoption in Nigeria is economic uncertainty, particularly the potential impact on employment.
Job losses were identified as the leading concern by 46 per cent of Nigerian respondents, significantly highlighting employment anxiety surrounding AI adoption.
Concerns about individual capability followed at 33 per cent, while 32 per cent cited the accuracy of AI-generated decisions.
The concerns are consistent with a broader regional pattern. In the Middle East and Africa, worries about job displacement are higher than the global average, while concerns about service delivery are comparatively lower.
Globally, job displacement was cited by 332 per cent of respondents as their leading concern about AI, followed by the accuracy of AI-generated decisions at 3 per cent.
“Nigerians are embracing AI faster than almost any other market surveyed; they also want reassurance that technological progress will create opportunities, not just disruption,” Majekodunmi said.
She added that addressing concerns about jobs, capability and the reliability of AI-enabled decisions would be critical to building long-term trust.
