Nigeria is charting an ambitious path toward a sustainable digital future anchored on innovation, inclusivity, and resilience, a vision central to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda. The agenda focuses on economic reform, infrastructure development, digital diversification, and stronger governance for efficient service delivery.
This was the key message delivered by the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Inuwa Abdullahi, at the NORDIC Nigeria Connect 2025 held in Lagos. Speaking on the theme, “Nigeria’s Digital Infrastructure Ambition and Path to Sustainability,” Inuwa said the country’s digital transformation goes beyond data centers or fiber-optic cables, aiming instead to build a new, inclusive and resilient economic system for digital prosperity.
He explained that Nigeria’s digital vision rests on two major layers — the Shared Digital Backbone and the Operational Backbone. The Shared Backbone covers physical infrastructure such as terrestrial fiber optics, subsea cables, green data centers, and sovereign cloud services, while the Operational Backbone represents Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) like digital identity, payments, and secure data exchange systems that support innovation and service delivery.
Referencing the recent global cloud outage that affected Amazon Web Services (AWS), Inuwa emphasized the need for digital sovereignty, warning that dependence on foreign cloud regions threatens business continuity. “We must build the capacity for digital self-determination,” he asserted.
The NITDA boss outlined Nigeria’s sustainability strategy under three pillars; Policy, People, and Partnerships. Under Policy, he said, the government is fostering a predictable regulatory environment through the Nigeria Startup Act and Data Protection Act to encourage innovation while protecting consumers.
On the People pillar, Inuwa noted that infrastructure must be supported by human talent. Through the National Digital Literacy Framework and the Three Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme, Nigeria is nurturing a skilled workforce capable of driving innovation and maintaining digital infrastructure.
Under the Partnerships pillar, he said Nigeria is building structured collaborations with global allies, including the Nordic region, to co-develop technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI). He highlighted ongoing projects such as Project BRIDGE, which is expanding the national fibre network to 125,000 kilometres, and the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative, which promotes local data storage capacity.
Inuwa concluded by reaffirming that Nigeria’s digital future depends on robust infrastructure, human capital, and strategic partnerships. “With clear vision, deliberate strategy, and inclusive policy frameworks, Nigeria will not only achieve digital sustainability, we will lead Africa’s digital transformation,” he declared.
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