The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has intensified its IT Project Clearance campaign, saving the country over N300 billion, a figure that underscores the importance of continued reforms and oversight in public sector IT spending.
This is even as the agency is taking its message to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), the Auditor General of the Federation, and the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).
At the core of the campaign is NITDA’s newly reviewed IT Project Clearance Guidance Document, an upgrade to the 2018 Guidelines, designed to standardise the planning, funding, and implementation of IT projects across all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs). The document emphasises interoperability, cost-effectiveness, transparency, and compliance with national digital economy goals.
NITDA director general, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa, during visits to the key federal offices, emphasised the need for inter-agency collaboration to achieve a truly digitized government.
“We are building a digitised government service; and the government is one. We need to work together, work harmoniously, the same way IT systems work to deliver services,” he stated.
Inuwa decried the high failure rate—56 per cent—of IT projects in the public sector, attributing it to hasty adoption of flashy technologies without proper design or alignment to business goals. “Most projects are proposed, designed, and implemented by contractors without room for oversight, leading to lack of accountability and eventual failure,” he warned.
The revised guidelines introduce a three-step implementation framework—Solution Design, Implementation, and Quality Assurance—and now mandate that contractors be licensed and employ certified professionals across these stages before they can qualify for government IT contracts.
At the Bureau of Public Procurement, director general Dr. Adebowale Adedokun praised the reforms and emphasised the urgency of standardising IT project bidding documents to curb misuse and fraud. “It is disheartening that organisations misuse IT projects to siphon public funds—resources that could otherwise transform the country,” he remarked.
Adedokun further urged NITDA to help the BPP develop IT Price Intelligence data and consider service-wide licensing frameworks for major platforms like Microsoft and Oracle. “We need to stop wastage and say no to consuming resources that could be redirected to vital national needs,” he asserted.
To operationalise the joint vision, both agencies agreed to set up a working committee and sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to institutionalize collaboration in IT project review and approval.
Inuwa reiterated that the goal is not just about technology, but about building systems around people and processes. “For us to lead in Africa’s digital economy, we must be intentional in designing interoperable systems and breaking down the silos that hamper collaboration.”
Similarly, the auditor general of the federation, Shaakaa Chira, described NITDA’s initiative as commendable and pledged to conduct a performance audit once the guideline is fully operational.
The acting accountant general of the federation, Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, also welcomed the initiative and promised to align financial oversight mechanisms with NITDA’s IT clearance framework.
