President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has declared the 2026 edition of GITEX Nigeria open, calling for a decisive shift from technology consumption to indigenous innovation, artificial intelligence development and digital sovereignty as Nigeria seeks to emerge as a global technology leader.
The President, represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, made the call on Monday at the opening of the GITEX Nigeria Government Leadership & AI Summit in Abuja.
Held under the theme, “Beyond Connectivity – The Bridge to Sovereign AI & Innovation,” the summit brought together more than 500 public- and private-sector leaders, investors, technology experts and other digital economy stakeholders from Nigeria, Africa and across the world.
Akume said the Tinubu administration was pursuing an ambitious economic transformation agenda, including the drive towards a $1 trillion economy, stressing that technology and indigenous innovation would be critical to achieving the target.
According to him, Nigeria must move beyond basic connectivity and develop the talent, infrastructure and technological capabilities required to achieve genuine digital sovereignty.
“Under the vision of His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Renewed Hope Agenda, Nigeria is boldly driving toward a $1 trillion economy. To achieve economic transformation we must now move far beyond basic connectivity to build true indigenous innovation and digital sovereignty,” Akume said.
He described GITEX Nigeria as a strategic platform where government vision could align with private-sector execution, enabling the country to transition from a consumer of foreign technologies to a producer of globally competitive technology.
“This is our opportunity for decisive transition from being mere consumers of foreign technology to becoming global producers of talent, sovereign infrastructure, and inclusively designed AI — built by Nigeria, for Nigeria. We are leading a new era for Africa,” he said.
Also speaking at the inauguration, the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, said Nigeria was building the foundations required to achieve digital sovereignty and technology-led economic growth.
Inuwa said strategic initiatives such as DL4ALL, 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) and Project BRIDGE were rapidly expanding the country’s technical talent pool while extending high-speed digital inclusion across local government areas.
He said government was also developing the policy, cloud infrastructure and regulatory frameworks required to host data locally, deploy artificial intelligence responsibly and improve national productivity.
“Achieving true digital sovereignty means owning the capabilities, infrastructure, and intelligence that power our future,” Inuwa said.
He added that GITEX Nigeria was positioning the country as a global force capable of shaping the international technology ecosystem rather than merely participating in it.
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, identified compute infrastructure and digital public services as major opportunities for technology investment, saying Lagos was strategically positioned to support Africa’s growing artificial intelligence economy.
Sanwo-Olu said Lagos was one of the continent’s major cable-landed cities, with significant subsea capacity, while ongoing investments in fibre infrastructure, electricity and data-centre campuses were creating the foundation for a stronger digital economy.
He observed that a significant proportion of Africa’s AI workloads were currently being processed in Europe, resulting in challenges relating to latency, cost and data sovereignty.
According to him, the situation represents a major investment opportunity for Nigeria to develop local compute capacity and retain more of Africa’s digital economic value on the continent.
The governor also identified the government market as another major opportunity, noting that the digitalisation of procurement, revenue collection, permitting, health records, transportation and land administration in Lagos was creating a growing market for enterprise technology solutions.
The Abuja summit featured extensive discussions on digital public infrastructure, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data sovereignty, connectivity, investment and strategic technology partnerships.
More than 25 international experts participated in sessions examining the policies, infrastructure, financing models and partnerships needed to strengthen Africa’s technological capabilities, accelerate inclusion and improve regional competitiveness.
Discussions also focused on backbone infrastructure and last-mile connectivity, including cables, satellites and blended finance, as well as the challenges limiting private capital flows into digital infrastructure across West Africa and the wider continent.
Another major session examined Africa’s accelerating e-government transformation and the opportunities emerging from digital identity, payments and data-exchange infrastructure.
Following the Abuja summit, GITEX Nigeria will move to Lagos from September 2 to 3 for the Tech Expo, staged alongside the Future Economy Conference and FDX by GITEX.
The Lagos programme is expected to attract more than 200 investors from 30 countries, collectively managing about US$200 billion in assets, providing startups and technology companies with opportunities to secure investment, partnerships and access to international markets.
The organisers said the impact of GITEX Nigeria had already extended beyond the event itself, citing the experience of venture studio FirstFounders, which connected with 18 startups during the inaugural 2025 edition.
One of the startups, Vant, an AI-powered business banking and management platform, subsequently joined the FirstFounders portfolio through an investment valued at US$200,000, alongside operational support.
GITEX Nigeria 2026 is being held under the patronage of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and supported by the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy in collaboration with NITDA.
The event is endorsed by the Lagos State Government and organised by KAOUN International, the global organiser of GITEX events.
