The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, CCIE, has commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for providing the policy direction and enabling environment needed to place technology and innovation at the centre of Nigeria’s economic transformation.
Inuwa stated this while speaking at GITEX Nigeria in Lagos, noting that the Tinubu administration had, from the outset, recognised that Nigeria’s economic future depends on moving beyond traditional sources of growth through deliberate investments in diversification, innovation and digitalisation.
According to him, the vision is captured in the President’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly its focus on accelerating economic diversification through industrialisation, digitalisation, creative arts, manufacturing and innovation.
The NITDA Director-General said the future economy would increasingly be driven not by the physical resources a country possesses, but by what its people can think, imagine, learn, create and solve.
He described Nigeria’s human capital as the country’s most valuable resource, stressing that talent development must remain at the heart of the nation’s digital transformation.
Inuwa highlighted the administration’s efforts to integrate digital skills into formal education, as well as initiatives such as the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme, designed to equip Nigerians, particularly young people, with skills required to thrive in a technology-driven economy.
He, however, stressed that the responsibility goes beyond developing skilled Nigerians to creating an environment where those skills can translate into businesses, innovations, products and solutions to the country’s real-world challenges.
The NITDA boss noted that Nigeria’s young and talented population, large market and significant development challenges provide the ingredients needed for the country to become a creator and contributor to the global digital economy.
He said the direction set by President Tinubu provides an opportunity for Nigeria to harness technology not merely as a tool for digital transformation, but as an engine for productivity, economic diversification, inclusion and sustainable prosperity.
