Nigeria’s Digital Transformation Agenda Impressive, Says United Nations Varsity On E-governance

The United Nations University on E-governance (UNU-EGOV) has stated that Nigeria’s digital transformation plan is impressive, emphasising that the Nigerian government has demonstrated seriousness in its implementation.

The director of UNU-EGOV, Delfina Soares, gave this commendation during the closing ceremony of the 18th ICEGOV conference in Abuja on Friday, organised by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), with the theme: “Shaping the Future of Digital Governance through Cooperation, Innovation and Inclusion”

Soares said, “I could understand the priority that the country has given to this topic. And now here, in the multiple discussions and as you heard at the closing ceremony, we received a lot of papers from authors from Nigeria, and it is very clear, not just for me, I think for all the community now, the developments that the country is doing in this area.”

On the expectation from ICEGOV she said, “We expect that it continues to be a platform to gather together all the relevant stakeholders so that we can jointly face this challenge. Because we are talking about digital technology and digital transformation that can bring a lot of benefits and that can have a huge impact on citizens, in the life of a country.”

The programme chair for the ICEGOV 2025 Conference, Prof. Adegboyega Ojo, of Carleton University, Canada, told reporters that “government is providing a platform for dialogue regarding how technology can be used to improve the way government works in general. Whether it’s really about the way they work internally or the way they develop their policies or the way they provide services to the public.”

In his reaction, the special assistant on Innovation and Research to the director general of NITDA, Lukman Lamid, said the government hopes to implement the recommendations of the conference.

“We expect that at the end of this conference, some of the recommendations and best practices that have been talked about here are going to be put together to be a framework for us to develop our digital economy in Nigeria.”

The programme is a new approach to driving digital transformation in the public sector.