Expression of Interest · Ref NG‑FMCIDE‑544880‑CS‑QCBS · April 2026

Fibre alone
doesn't create trust.

As Nigeria lays 90,000 km of new backbone, millions will meet digital services — and digital risks — for the first time. Project BRIDGE builds the safety, policy, and trust infrastructure to meet them.

Explore the research ↓ Meet the consortium

A consortium of six institutions — led by Bayero University, Kano, with UK partners at York St John and Leicester — responding to the FMCIDE call on Cluster E: Trust, Safety, Consumer Protection and Online Harms.

Our team is the only one on the continent that has built large-scale hate-speech, sentiment, and safety datasets for African languages — and shipped four working platforms into real Nigerian hands.

Lead Institution
Bayero University, Kano
Consortium
6 institutions · 4 NG · 2 UK
Cluster
E · Trust, Safety & Online Harms
Duration
36 months · from Q3 2026
Grants secured by team
USD 1.5M+ (Wellcome, OpenAI, Google, Lacuna)
Researcher commitment
15 postdocs + 15 PhD candidates
Hate speech detection● African-language NLP● Self-sovereign identity● FinTech fraud prevention● Privacy by design● Adaptive regulation● Youth digital literacy● Hate speech detection● African-language NLP● Self-sovereign identity● FinTech fraud prevention● Privacy by design● Adaptive regulation● Youth digital literacy●
University-Led Research Clusters · National Digital Economy
REF · NG‑FMCIDE‑544880‑CS‑QCBS
CLUSTER
05/06
Our cluster

Cluster E — the human side of the fibre.

Where policy, trust and safety decide whether expanded connectivity becomes opportunity — or exposure.

01Trust
02Safety
03Consumer Protection
04Online Harms
Dr. Bosun Tijani
DR. BOSUN TIJANI FMCIDE · HON. MINISTER
Programme sponsor · Federal Republic of Nigeria
"Nigeria is not waiting for the world to connect us. We are building our own infrastructure — and the world is choosing to invest alongside us."
Dr. 'Bosun Tijani
Honourable Minister, Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy
@bosuntijani
FMCIDE · FGN
$200M
African Development Bank · approved for Project BRIDGE
$500M
World Bank Group · programme financing
$100M
EBRD · backing Nigeria's digital agenda

Largest fibre-backbone investment in any developing nation. This consortium responds to the Ministry's call and stands ready to deliver the trust, safety and governance layer that makes the infrastructure matter.

Six institutions.
One Kano-rooted
research corridor.

Four Nigerian universities anchored in Kano and Jigawa, joined by two UK cybersecurity centres. The composition meets the Programme's four-to-six requirement and includes the encouraged international partners.

🇳🇬 NG · 01
Lead
Bayero University, Kano
Online harms, African-language NLP, AI safety, hate speech detection
🇳🇬 NG · 02
AI Lead
Kano Univ. of Science & Technology, Wudil
AI, machine learning, data-driven systems
🇳🇬 NG · 03
Partner
Federal Univ. of Technology, Babura
Recommender systems, data analytics, cybersecurity, ICT
🇳🇬 NG · 04
Partner
Northwest University, Kano
Deep learning, feature selection, computer vision, cybersecurity
🇬🇧 UK · 05
International
York St John University
Cybersecurity, trust systems, data privacy, IoT security
🇬🇧 UK · 06
International
University of Leicester
Cyber security, privacy, SSI, forensic investigation

Six research streams,
interlocked.

Each stream maps to the Cluster E Terms of Reference. Each produces evidence, tools, and policy guidance — not papers that sit on shelves.

STREAM 01

Online Harms, Hate Speech & Content Moderation

Multilingual hate-speech systems for Nigerian languages; community-informed governance models; study of political polarisation in Nigerian digital space.

AfriHateNaijaSentiPolarization
STREAM 02

Consumer Protection in Digital Markets

Map online fraud and deceptive practices; NLP detection for phishing in Nigerian languages; assess whether existing regulatory frameworks actually work.

PhishingRegulationDigital fraud
STREAM 03

Secure & Privacy-Preserving Authentication for FinTech

Multi-modal continuous authentication matched to Nigerian usage patterns; policy guidance balancing fraud prevention, protection, and privacy.

BiometricsZero-trustFinTech
STREAM 04

Trust, Privacy & Data Protection Frameworks

Evaluate NDPA 2023 / NDPR implementation; privacy-preserving frameworks for identity, health and fintech; comparative enforcement across jurisdictions.

NDPAGDPRSSI
STREAM 05

Youth Online Safety & Digital Literacy

Assess cyberbullying and exploitation affecting Nigerian youth; evaluate digital-literacy programmes; age-appropriate safety tools in Nigerian languages.

YouthAfriSafeLiteracy
STREAM 06

Regulatory Innovation & Adaptive Governance

Compare digital-safety frameworks across EU, AU, ECOWAS, UK & India; assess Nigerian agency capacity; recommend reforms that actually ship.

PolicyECOWASReform

Key personnel
indicative.

A team that sits at the intersection of NLP, cybersecurity, FinTech and national policy — with a former Vice Chancellor, a former State Commissioner, and Google DeepMind and Imperial College affiliations.

Dr. Shamsuddeen Hassan Muhammad
CONSORTIUM LEAD · 01
Consortium Lead
Dr. Shamsuddeen
Hassan Muhammad
Google DeepMind Academic Fellow, Imperial College London. h-index 22, 4,716 citations. PI of AfriHate and BRIGHTER. USD 1.5M+ in competitive grants.
Prof. Muhammad Yahuza Bello
PROFESSORIAL LEAD · 02
Professorial Lead
Prof. Muhammad
Yahuza Bello
10th Vice Chancellor of Bayero University (2015–2020). Founded Computer Science studies at BUK in 1990. 40+ years academic leadership.
Prof. Bashir Shehu Galadanci
POLICY LEAD · 03
Policy & Governance
Prof. Bashir
Shehu Galadanci
Former State Commissioner for Science & Technology, Kano. National Coordinator, UBEC Digital Resource Center. He doesn't just study policy — he's made it.
Prof. Salisu Mamman Abdulrahman
AI LEAD · 04
AI Lead
Prof. Salisu
Mamman Abdulrahman
Dean of the Faculty of Computing & Mathematical Sciences, KUST Wudil. Machine learning, algorithm selection, low-resource Hausa NLP.
Prof. Aminu Bello Usman
CYBER LEAD · 05
Cybersecurity
Prof. Aminu
Bello Usman
Director, Cybersecurity Research Group, York St John. PI of Cyber360 (£120k). Founder of VigilSentinel & Wazobia Invoice. Patent-pending zero-trust PoS.
Dr. Ibrahim Said Ahmad
NLP · ETHICS · 06
NLP & Ethical AI
Dr. Ibrahim
Said Ahmad
40+ publications. Organiser of SemEval 2025 Task 11. USD 300k+ in grants. Cultural-alignment research on LLMs for Hausa speakers.
Dr. Abubakar-Sadiq Shehu
IDENTITY · 07
Cyber Security · SSI
Dr. Abubakar-
Sadiq Shehu
Teaching Fellow, Leicester. Pioneer Hausa/Yoruba Language Engineer at Google. Former Apple fraud-prevention lead. Founded SPIDVerify (500+ orgs).
Prof. Khalid Haruna
CYBER RISK · 08
Recommender Systems · Data
Prof. Khalid
Haruna
Federal University of Technology, Babura. Recommender systems, data analytics, cybersecurity and ICT research lead for the Jigawa node of the consortium.
+ 3 additional senior research specialists · programme administrator · 15 postdoc positions · 15 PhD positions
See full roster →

Four operational
platforms. Already
shipped.

Most consortiums would spend Year 1 building infrastructure. Ours is already in production — giving BRIDGE a running start.

Platform · AI Safety

AfriSafe

Safety in the era of generative AI — deepfakes, AI-generated misinformation, automated hate speech — built for African linguistic diversity.
↗ afrisafe.vercel.app
A
Platform · Cybersecurity

VigilSentinel

Integrated cyber operations — vulnerability assessment, endpoint monitoring, threat detection, log collection. 15+ assessment types. Self- or cloud-hosted.
↗ vigilsentinel.com
V
Platform · FinTech

Wazobia Invoice

Secure, offline-first FinTech for underserved Nigerian SMEs. Patent-pending zero-trust PoS network with dual-key encryption and 12-word recovery.
↗ wazobia-invoice.ng
W
Platform · Identity

SPIDVerify

SaaS identity verification, KYC compliance, business onboarding and AML screening — already serving 500+ organisations globally.
↗ spidverify.com
S

From research
to decision-makers.

Research that doesn't reach decision-makers is an expensive hobby. Our outreach is structured around specific MDAs with concrete policy instruments.

Target agencies
F
FMCIDE
Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy
↗
N
NDPC
Nigeria Data Protection Commission — NDPA 2023 enforcement
↗
T
NITDA
National IT Development Agency — digital safety standards
↗
C
NCC
Nigerian Communications Commission — platform governance
↗
O
NOA & FME
Orientation Agency + Federal Ministry of Education — youth safety
↗
Policy instruments
A
Policy briefs & executive summaries

Each shaped for specific stakeholders and timed to land at decision points.

B
Stakeholder dialogue

Structured conversations with government, platforms, FinTech, civil society and development partners.

C
Capacity building

Workshops and training for government officials on digital-safety practice and evidence use.

D
Open datasets

Extending AfriHate, NaijaSenti & AfriSafe — public goods that outlast the grant.

36-month programme arc
M 00–06
Mobilise
Cohort recruitment, baseline studies, AfriSafe expansion to Nigerian focus.
M 06–12
Map
Fraud landscape, NDPA gap analysis, hate-speech dataset extension.
M 12–18
Build
NLP detection stack for Nigerian languages; authentication prototypes.
M 18–24
Test
Pilots with NDPC/NITDA; VigilSentinel deployed as safety testbed.
M 24–30
Translate
Policy briefs to MDAs; stakeholder dialogues; regulatory comparisons.
M 30–36
Embed
Institutional transfer; open datasets released; next-cohort handoff.
Tweaks
BRIDGE · v1