NITDA Backs Abia’s ‘One Citizen, One Identity’ Digital Drive
By Alabidun Shuaib AbdulRahman
The National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA has pledged continued support for sub-national governments in building integrated, data-driven systems to enhance service delivery and accelerate economic growth, in line with the reform priorities of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The agency made the commitment at the Future Enterprise and Data Architecture of Abia State workshop themed, “One Citizen, One Identity: Unlocking Data-Driven Governance,” held in Umuahia.
The workshop, organised by the Abia State Ministry of Budget and Planning, was declared open by Alex Otti, represented by the Deputy Governor, Ikechukwu Emetu.
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The forum brought together policymakers, technocrats and development partners to explore strategies for building a unified and interoperable public sector system in the state.
Speaking during a panel session titled “Breaking Silos, Building One Government,” the Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, who was represented by the agency’s Director of Stakeholder Management and Partnership, Dr Aristotle Onumo, said collaboration was critical to achieving meaningful digital transformation.
He said, “One thing that is very clear is partnership and collaboration. If you want to take advantage of collective intelligence, then partnership is the key. If you want to succeed in building a unified government system, collaboration is the way to go.”
Inuwa stressed that digital transformation goes beyond the deployment of technology, noting that institutional culture and mindset must evolve to dismantle entrenched silos across Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
“Digital transformation is as much about people as it is about process and technology. If culture resists change, it can undermine strategy at every level. We must move from control to collaboration, and from isolation to integration,” he added.
The NITDA boss disclosed that the agency is targeting 70 per cent digital literacy nationwide through structured interventions, including plans to train 30 million Nigerians across formal and informal sectors using digital learning platforms deployed through community and institutional partnerships.
He also revealed that digital education is being integrated into curricula at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, while civil servants across the federal public service are undergoing digital capacity development programmes to improve institutional efficiency and readiness for interoperable governance.
On interoperability, Inuwa described it as essential to achieving data integrity and efficiency in governance.
According to him, NITDA is developing a national interoperability framework and advancing Enterprise Architecture initiatives across government institutions to ensure seamless data exchange.
“When we talk about interoperability, we mean that data generated in one agency should be accessible and usable by another in a consistent and secure format, without contradiction or confusion. That is how you build one government, not multiple disconnected systems,” he said.
He added that a robust interoperability framework would also create opportunities for startups and young innovators to build solutions on structured public datasets.
The workshop ended with a call for stronger federal-state collaboration, policy alignment and sustained investment in digital capacity to actualise the vision of “One Citizen, One Identity” in Abia State.
