The Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, says digital identity is a critical foundation for expanding access to Nigeria’s digital economy.
Abdullahi made the assertion during a high-level panel session, “Identity in Action and Access to the Digital Economy,” convened by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) as part of discussions on “The Digital Public Ecosystem: Identity, Trust & Inclusive Access.”
The NITDA chief joined Senator Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, Deputy Chief of Staff to the President; Aderemi Adebowale, National Coordinator of the Renewed Hope National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme; and Olugbenga Agboola, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flutterwave, at the session moderated by Diura Oladepo, Executive Director of Technology for Social Change and Development (Tech4Dev).
Speaking on how Nigeria could leverage digital identity to expand access to services and strengthen interoperable Digital Public Infrastructure, Abdullahi explained that digital identity went beyond a card or identification number.
“Digital identity is the trust layer of the digital economy,” he said.
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The NITDA Director-General explained that trusted digital identity could enable authorised innovators and service providers to build on foundational identity infrastructure instead of repeatedly creating fragmented identity systems.
According to him, such an approach could accelerate customer onboarding, reduce verification costs and expand access to trusted digital services across sectors, including fintech, healthcare, education, agriculture, insurance and government.
Using the example of a farmer, Abdullahi explained that interoperable infrastructure could allow an individual to establish identity through the National Identification Number (NIN), verify eligibility on an agricultural platform, receive support through a payment rail and access authorised government services through trusted data exchange.
He noted that this would reduce the need for citizens to repeatedly submit the same information to different institutions.
Abdullahi observed that Nigeria’s next challenge was to translate the growing scale of digital identity into practical and trusted utility across the economy.
“Digital identity is not the destination; it is the doorway,” he said, stressing that the broader objective should be to develop a secure, trusted and interoperable digital ecosystem.
The NITDA chief added that such an ecosystem should enable Nigerians, irrespective of geography, gender or economic status, to access essential services, participate safely in the digital economy and unlock new opportunities.
