NITDA reforms’ll boost local software, digital sovereignty — DG
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NITDA reforms’ll boost local software, digital sovereignty — DG
By Alabidun Shuaib AbdulRahman
The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, has said ongoing reforms in Information Technology procurement will boost local innovation and strengthen Nigeria’s digital sovereignty.
Inuwa disclosed this on Tuesday while speaking at the 66th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
He spoke during a plenary session titled, “Nigeria First, Procurement Last: How E-commerce is Rewriting Contracts.”
The NITDA boss said the reforms were designed to improve confidence in locally developed software, strengthen public procurement and ensure that government investments in technology delivered measurable value.
He said the measures were also aligned with the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly its objectives of improving governance and service delivery, diversifying the economy through industrialisation and accelerating digitisation.
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Giving an insight into the scale of government’s IT procurement, Inuwa said NITDA received proposals for 1,092 IT projects from 326 Ministries, Departments and Agencies between July 2023 and July 2026.
He said the proposed projects were valued at over N4.24tn, while 1,056 projects worth N3.84tn had been cleared by the agency.
According to him, NITDA is implementing three major reforms to address weaknesses in IT project planning, software adoption and digital infrastructure.
He identified the first as the strengthening of the IT Project Clearance Framework, under which MDAs would be required to develop proper solution designs before making budgetary provisions for IT projects.
Inuwa said NITDA would certify companies responsible for solution design, implementation and quality assurance, with safeguards to prevent one organisation from handling all three functions on the same project.
He likened the process to the construction industry, noting that buildings require architectural designs before construction begins.
The DG said the approach would promote standardisation, improve accountability and ensure better value for money in government technology investments.
On the second reform, the Software Assurance Framework, Inuwa said it was being developed to increase confidence in locally developed software and reduce Nigeria’s dependence on foreign off-the-shelf solutions.
He lamented that many Nigerian organisations spent huge sums customising software developed for foreign markets to suit local requirements, only to incur further expenses when vendors released new versions.
He said NITDA was therefore promoting solution design, software testing, standards and assurance, including licensing software testing companies to assess locally developed solutions.
Inuwa said Nigeria needed technology solutions designed around its own realities, adding that organisations in the country had different operational needs and business objectives.
He said the third reform was linked to the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative, which he described as a major step towards strengthening Nigeria’s digital sovereignty.
“When we talk about digital sovereignty, it’s about us as a nation to build the capability for digital self-determination,” he said.
According to him, the initiative would strengthen Nigeria’s digital public infrastructure while creating opportunities for locally developed innovations to be built, hosted and scaled within the country.
He said the framework provided for certification across key segments of the cloud ecosystem, including infrastructure providers, data centres, cloud service providers, system integrators and cloud aggregators.
He added that appropriate requirements would also be established for the handling of sensitive and critical data.
The NITDA boss urged stakeholders to see public procurement beyond government expenditure, describing it as a strategic tool for building national capacity 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.
Inuwa cited the growth of Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem as evidence of what deliberate policies and market opportunities could achieve, urging stakeholders to replicate the success in healthcare, education, agriculture and other sectors.
He also advised public institutions to change the way they specify IT requirements, urging them to focus less on prescribing particular technologies and more on clearly defining the problems to be solved, the programmes to be implemented and the expected outcomes.
The NITDA DG further charged members of the legal profession to ensure that technology contracts adequately address data ownership, data processing and storage, data portability, intellectual property, cybersecurity and contractual responsibilities.
He said clearer technology contracts would strengthen the protection of public institutions and improve confidence in government technology investments.
