Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has said the Agency is implementing a series of reforms to strengthen Information Technology (IT) procurement, improve confidence in locally developed software and advance Nigeria’s digital sovereignty.
Inuwa disclosed this at the 66th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where he spoke during a plenary session themed, “Nigeria First, Procurement Last: How E-commerce is Rewriting Contracts.”
He said the reforms are part of NITDA’s efforts to support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda of Reforming the Economy for Sustained Inclusive Growth, Improving Governance for Effective Service Delivery, and Accelerating Diversification through Industrialisation and Digitisation.
According to him, the measures are also aimed at strengthening public procurement under the Nigeria First policy and ensuring that government investments in technology deliver measurable value while contributing to the growth of Nigeria’s digital economy.
Inuwa revealed that between July 2023 and July 2026, NITDA received proposals for 1,092 IT projects from 326 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), out of more than 1,300 MDAs in the country.
The proposed projects were valued at over ₦4.24 trillion, while 1,056 projects valued at ₦3.84 trillion were cleared by the Agency.
He identified three major reforms being implemented by NITDA to address challenges around IT project planning, software adoption and digital infrastructure.
“The first is the strengthening of the IT Project Clearance Framework, under which MDAs will be required to have a proper solution design before making budgetary provisions for IT projects.” he noted.
Inuwa said NITDA would certify companies providing solution design, implementation and quality assurance services, with safeguards to ensure that the three functions are not performed by the same organisation on a single project.
Drawing an analogy with the construction industry, he explained that IT projects should be properly designed before implementation, just as buildings require architectural designs before construction begins.
He said the approach would promote standardisation, strengthen accountability and ensure better value for money in government technology investments.
The second reform is the Software Assurance Framework, which Inuwa said is being developed to strengthen confidence in locally developed software and reduce Nigeria’s dependence on off-the-shelf solutions.
He noted that many Nigerian organisations spend significant resources customising software developed for foreign markets to meet local requirements, only to incur additional costs when vendors introduce new versions.
According to him, Nigerian organisations have different business objectives and operational requirements, making it necessary to develop and adopt solutions that respond effectively to local realities.
Inuwa said NITDA is therefore promoting solution design, software testing, standards and assurance, including the licensing of software testing companies to assess locally developed solutions.
The third reform is linked to NITDA’s National Sovereign Cloud Initiative, which seeks to strengthen Nigeria’s digital sovereignty and build the country’s capacity for digital self-determination.
“When we talk about digital sovereignty, it’s about us as a nation to build the capability for digital self-determination,” he said.
He explained that the initiative would strengthen Nigeria’s digital public infrastructure and create greater opportunities for locally developed innovations to be built, hosted and scaled within the country.
According to him, the framework provides for certification across key segments of the cloud ecosystem, including infrastructure providers and data centres, cloud service providers, system integrators and cloud aggregators, while establishing appropriate requirements for sensitive and critical data.
Beyond technology procurement, the NITDA DG urged stakeholders to view public procurement as a strategic instrument for building national capabilities, shaping markets and creating opportunities for Nigerian innovators.
“We look at public procurement not just as a way of government spending money, but as a powerful instrument government has for shaping markets, for building our national capabilities, as well as for creating opportunities for our innovators,” he said.
He cited the growth of Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem as an example of what deliberate policy and market opportunities can achieve, and challenged stakeholders to explore similar opportunities in healthcare, education, agriculture and other sectors.
Inuwa also urged public institutions to rethink how they specify IT requirements, advising them to focus less on prescribing particular technologies and more on clearly defining the problems they seek to solve, the programmes they intend to implement and the outcomes they expect to achieve.
He further stressed the importance of the legal profession in ensuring that technology contracts adequately address data ownership, data processing and storage, data portability, intellectual property, security and contractual responsibilities.
He added that greater clarity in technology contracts would strengthen the protection of public institutions and improve confidence in government technology investments, while the reforms would ultimately help position public procurement as a driver of local innovation, digital capacity and Nigeria’s long-term digital sovereignty.
