Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, the Director Normal/CEO, Nationwide Info Expertise Improvement Company (NITDA)
Kashifu Inuwa, the director‑common of the Nationwide Info Expertise Improvement Company (NITDA), urged Nigerians and stakeholders on Thursday to view digital transformation as an ‘infinite sport’ fairly than a race with a set end line.
Addressing the seventeenth BusinessDay’s CEO Discussion board on “Nigeria: From Reform to Restoration,” he confused that each reform milestone should function a contemporary start line for deeper, extra inclusive financial progress.
Recounting NITDA’s evolution since its 2001 inception (then NICA), Inuwa reminded delegates that fewer than 500,000 Nigerians then had entry to computer systems, and ICT contributed beneath 0.5 p.c to GDP. In the present day, over 130 million residents are on-line, and the sector accounts for greater than 14.4 p.c of actual GDP, in response to the Nationwide Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for This autumn 2024.
“It’s about thriving repeatedly, not about reaching a end line the place we are able to mud ourselves off and be completely satisfied,” he said.
He additionally pointed to a collection of landmark insurance policies, the 2007 NITDA Act, the expanded 2012 IT coverage, and the 2019 paradigm shift in the direction of leveraging expertise for financial actions, as constructing blocks.
Inuwa highlighted President Bola Tinubu’s 2020 pronouncement that financial diversification and inclusivity would information the administration’s agenda, with digitisation, industrialisation and innovation elevated to a key precedence.
Learn additionally: Lekki port took 23 years. Now it’s paying off — LFZ CEO
To underpin this imaginative and prescient, NITDA crafted a Strategic Roadmap and Motion Plan centred on 5 pillars, that are data, coverage, infrastructure, innovation & entrepreneurship, and commerce.
“Data is the inspiration upon which international locations construct a sturdy, sustainable financial system,” Inuwa noticed, including that “immediately’s ubiquitous knowledge, limitless connectivity, and large processing energy imply your limitation is your creativeness.”
On regulation, the DG advocated a twin method: rule‑primarily based frameworks for certainty, and non‑rule‑primarily based for experimentation.
“It’s like putting in site visitors lights solely after learning site visitors patterns,” he mentioned, underscoring the necessity to align digital insurance policies with Nigeria’s values and tradition to make sure accountable deployment of applied sciences reminiscent of AI and blockchain.
Citing digital‑literacy targets, Inuwa famous the 2020 Nationwide Digital Literacy Framework aimed for 99 per cent literacy by that yr; present objectives embrace 70 per cent by 2027 and 95 per cent by 2030. Initiatives span casual‑sector coaching, integration of digital expertise into the nationwide curriculum (in partnership with the Ministry of Training), and upskilling senior civil servants.
He referred to as for a united ecosystem: “Authorities units coverage and builds infrastructure, however personal enterprise, academia, entrepreneurs, and danger capital are the true change‑makers.”
Inuwa challenged Nigeria’s tech neighborhood to deal with every reform as a launchpad for the following wave of innovation, reinforcing his core message that steady enchancment, not a one‑off restoration, is the surest path to sustained, inclusive progress.
