Google has announced a 12-month free subscription to Google AI Plus for students in Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges of education as the new academic year begins.
The Gemini Student Offer, valued at ₦92,400 per student, is available to students aged 18 years and above who are currently enrolled in accredited higher institutions in Nigeria.
Google said students who benefited from the offer during the previous academic year could renew the subscription for another 12 months after re-verifying their student status.
The offer provides students with access to a range of artificial intelligence-powered learning and productivity tools through the Gemini application.
According to Google, students will receive increased usage limits, access to Gemini Omni, Gemini Live for real-time voice conversations, Deep Research for academic projects and term papers, custom practice quizzes, unlimited file uploads and 400GB of cloud storage.
Nigeria is among 27 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa where the student offer is available.
Olumide Balogun, Director, West and East Africa at Google, said the initiative was aimed at reducing financial barriers to access to AI tools and helping young Nigerians develop skills needed in the digital economy.
“AI is the defining technological shift of our generation, and for Nigeria, with one of the youngest and most entrepreneurial populations in the world, it is an immediate leapfrog opportunity,” Balogun said.
He said providing free access to Google AI Plus for a second consecutive year would enable Nigerian students to engage with complex subjects, develop digital skills and improve their competitiveness in the global economy.
Google said the initiative was designed to support learning rather than encourage students to use AI to complete academic assignments without understanding the subject.
It said Gemini’s Guided Learning mode was designed to operate more like a tutor by providing hints, asking guiding questions and helping students work through problems rather than simply providing answers.
The company said the approach had been evaluated in a Google DeepMind study involving 1,763 students in West African schools.
According to the study, students who used Guided Learning recorded learning progress equivalent to between 1.2 and 1.7 years over an eight-week period.
Google said more than 90 per cent of interactions in the study focused on understanding concepts, while Gemini provided a direct solution in only two per cent of interactions.
The company also said educators could retain control over the use of AI in classrooms through Google Classroom.
According to Google, teachers can lock Gemini into Guided Learning mode to ensure that students receive AI-supported assistance without simply obtaining answers to their assignments.
Google said student and classroom data would not be used to train its AI models.
The company also highlighted YouTube’s introduction of study-related safeguards, including Take a Break reminders, bedtime alerts and controls on Shorts, aimed at helping students reduce distractions while studying.
The Google AI Plus subscription also provides access to Gemini Study Notebooks, which can use uploaded lecture notes and course materials to generate practice quizzes and lesson plans.
Students can also use Gemini Live and Deep Research for brainstorming, research and academic projects, while interactive three-dimensional visualisations can help explain complex structures.
Another feature, Google Lens Homework Helper, allows students to take photographs of difficult equations or diagrams and receive guided assistance in understanding them.
Google said the combination of these tools was intended to give students access to personalised learning support while helping them develop digital and research skills.
Eligible students are required to verify their enrolment through SheerID before claiming the offer.
Students can access the offer through Google’s student programme and complete the verification process to activate their free 12-month subscription.
The initiative comes as Nigerian students and educational institutions increasingly explore the use of artificial intelligence for research, learning, productivity and skills development.
Google said expanding access to AI-powered educational tools could help students build capabilities that would be relevant to an increasingly technology-driven global economy.
