NITDA unveils technology report to attract investment, guide policies
By Alabidun Shuaib AbdulRahman
The National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA has unveiled the Nigeria Tech Outlook Report and Dashboard to provide reliable data on the country’s technology ecosystem and guide investment, policy decisions and innovation.
The Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, announced the initiative on the sidelines of the 2026 Digital Nigeria International Conference and Exhibition in Abuja.
Abdullahi said Nigeria had largely depended on data from the World Bank and other international institutions to inform decisions in the technology sector, stressing the need for credible, locally generated statistics.
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He said the agency was collaborating with the National Bureau of Statistics to develop a comprehensive understanding of the country’s technology landscape and provide investors with reliable information about market opportunities.
According to him, the conventional measurement of the digital economy, which largely captures the Information and Communications Technology sector’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product, does not adequately reflect technology’s influence across other sectors.
Highlighting opportunities identified by the report, Inuwa disclosed that although more than 80 per cent of Nigerian adults had bank accounts, fewer than 20 per cent had accessed digital credit.
He also said more than 80 per cent of Nigerians expressed interest in telemedicine, but only 19 per cent had accessed the service.
The NITDA boss identified healthcare technology and digital financial services as areas with considerable investment potential, noting that technology could help bridge gaps in service delivery and access to finance.
He explained that digital transaction records could enable small and medium-sized enterprises to demonstrate their financial activities and creditworthiness to financial institutions.
Inuwa said the report would help investors identify unmet demand, assess market opportunities and understand potential risks before committing capital.
He announced that the publication would become an annual exercise, with the second edition expected to be ready by June 1, 2027.
He added that NITDA planned to develop the report into an interactive portal through which citizens, investors and other stakeholders could access information, submit feedback and suggest improvements.
“We are going to continue working with the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS). We also want to work with other regulators to ensure we exchange real-time data so we can always have an up-to-date portal for people to go and interact with,” he said.
The Statistician-General of the Federation, Prince Adeyemi Adeniran, described the report as an important intervention in addressing the shortage of reliable data on Nigeria’s technology sector.
Adeniran disclosed that the NBS collaborated with NITDA to conduct a nationwide telephone survey using Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviews, covering 2,147 households and 539 primary healthcare facilities across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
He said the exercise provided a foundation for understanding how Nigerians and institutions accessed and used technology, adding that the NBS would sustain its collaboration with NITDA in producing reliable statistics for national planning.
