*Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, CCIE, Director-General/CEO, National Information Technology Development Agency, emphasises how Nigeria’s ambition to become a globally competitive destination for digital services has received further impetus and global attention at the 81st United Nations General Assembly, in New York
Emmanuel Akosile | ConsumerConnect
Nigeria’s ambition to become a globally competitive destination for digital services has received further impetus on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA81), in New York, United States (US).
Malam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, CCIE, Director-General/CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), emphasised this development when he participated in the “Hire from Nigeria” session, organised by the Nigeria Economic and Trade Advancement Programme (NATEP) at the global forum.
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Inuwa had joined Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, Honourable Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, and Dr. Moruf Alausa, Honourable Minister of Education, 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.
He emphasised that Nigeria’s competitive advantage must go beyond traditional outsourcing.
With the rapid transformation being driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI), 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.
The Director-General of the IT sector regulatory agency highlighted Nigeria’s evolving frameworks around data protection, digital identity, cybersecurity, digital infrastructure assurance, data classification, sovereign cloud and software quality assurance.
He also observed that trust, security and regulatory certainty are essential to attracting global businesses, and positioning Nigeria as a dependable destination for digital services.
Inuwa referenced Project BRIDGE, which targets the deployment of 90,000 kilometres of fibre optic infrastructure, alongside the Cloud First Policy, and other measures aimed at attracting private-sector investment in computing infrastructure and AI factories.
The NITDA Chief further 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.
According to him, through initiatives, such as the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR) and the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (NAIS), Nigeria is laying the foundation to develop indigenous AI capabilities while connecting its talent and innovation ecosystem to opportunities in the global digital economy.
NITDA said Inuwa’s intervention reinforced a compelling proposition for Nigeria at the global event.
That 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.
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