UNGA: NITDA Positions Nigeria For Stronger Digital Economy

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has taken steps to position Nigeria as a globally competitive destination for digital services.

Indications of this development emerged on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA81), where the director general of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, participated in the “Hire from Nigeria” session organised by the Nigeria Economic and Trade Advancement Programme (NATEP).

The NITDA boss joined the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, and the Minister of Education, Dr. Moruf Alausa, in a strategic conversation on impact sourcing, global trade, skills and inclusive job creation, highlighting Nigeria’s growing readiness to deliver globally competitive, technology- enabled services.

According to a statement issued on Friday by NITDA spokesperson Hadiza Umar, Abdullahi emphasised that Nigeria’s competitive advantage must extend beyond traditional outsourcing. He stressed that with the rapid transformation being driven by Artificial Intelligence, the country has an opportunity to build a distinctive position around AI-augmented, IT-enabled services, equipping Nigerians not merely to use emerging technologies but to understand, shape, develop, and create economic value with them.

Abdullahi highlighted Nigeria’s evolving frameworks for data protection, digital identity, cybersecurity, digital infrastructure assurance, data classification, sovereign cloud, and software quality assurance, noting that trust, security, and regulatory certainty are essential to attracting global businesses and positioning Nigeria as a dependable destination for digital services.

In this regard, he referenced Project BRIDGE, which targets the deployment of 90,000 kilometres of fibre infrastructure, alongside the Cloud First Policy and other measures to attract private-sector investment in computing infrastructure and AI factories.

Abdullahi also underscored the importance of representation in the AI economy, cautioning that communities and economies absent from the datasets used to develop intelligent systems risk becoming invisible in the technologies shaping the future.

“Through initiatives such as the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR) and the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, Nigeria is laying the foundation to develop indigenous AI capabilities while connecting its talent and innovation ecosystem to opportunities in the global digital economy.

“Our opportunity is not simply to supply talent to the world; it is to equip Nigerian talent with AI, trusted digital infrastructure and globally competitive capabilities to deliver higher-value services to the world”, he said.