The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has called on stakeholders across Nigeria’s digital ecosystem to contribute to the review of its Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2.0), ahead of the development of a new strategy in 2027.
The Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, made the call during the SRAP 2.0 stakeholders’ engagement workshop on the sidelines of the ongoing Digital Nigeria International Conference and Exhibition (DNICE) in Abuja.
Abdullahi explained that NITDA’s broad mandate, which covers the planning, research, standardisation, utilisation and coordination of information technology in Nigeria, makes it necessary for the agency to develop its strategies through extensive consultation rather than internal deliberations alone.
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The DG stressed the need for greater collaboration, accountability and stakeholder participation in shaping the agency’s strategic direction.
He noted that the agency began its strategic planning journey in 2019 with SRAP 1.0, followed by the development of SRAP 2.0 in 2023, adding that the current engagement was designed to independently assess the agency’s performance and identify areas requiring improvement.
“We don’t want it to be like the previous one, where we sit down in the agency, grade ourselves, and share productivity and bonuses among ourselves. We want you to tell us what we have achieved so that we can use that to evaluate ourselves and recalibrate.”
The NITDA boss emphasised that the technology ecosystem is constantly evolving, requiring the agency to regularly rethink its priorities and respond to changing expectations from businesses, citizens and other stakeholders.
He disclosed that NITDA, with support from the German development agency GIZ through the Digital Transformation Centre, was working towards establishing an online dashboard that would enable stakeholders to monitor the implementation of strategic initiatives and provide real-time feedback.
The dashboard, when completed, is expected to provide information on the agency’s strategic pillars, initiatives and performance indicators, while supporting periodic reviews and adjustments.
Presenting an overview of SRAP 2.0, Raymond Onuoha of Lagos Business School disclosed that the strategy was built around eight strategic pillars, comprising digital literacy and talent; technology research ecosystem; policy implementation and legal framework; inclusive access to digital infrastructure; cybersecurity and digital trust; innovation and entrepreneurship; strategic partnerships and collaboration; and organisational culture and agile workforce.
He explained that the strategy contained 37 aggregate success indicators and approximately 78 initiatives implemented across the 2024–2026 period.
Onuoha highlighted some of the agency’s reported achievements, including the training and certification of approximately 2.8 million Nigerians in digital skills, support for more than 700 startups, and the mobilisation of $51.2 million, alongside an additional $100 million, for technology startups.
He further disclosed that NITDA had developed about 17 regulatory standards and frameworks, while its IT project clearance initiative had reviewed public sector technology projects valued at approximately N2.77 trillion, generating optimised cost savings of N141 billion.
In cybersecurity, he said nearly 80,000 participants had received training, while the agency’s interventions had also supported the development of indigenous artificial intelligence capabilities.
He specifically highlighted N-ATLAS, an openly released AI language model with eight billion parameters and four speech recognition models incorporating Nigerian languages.
According to him, the model has attracted more than 140 registered collaborators, while 18 third-party applications have been certified for integration with it.
However, he noted that commercialisation and sustained adoption of the model remained at an early stage, urging stakeholders to identify the infrastructure, funding, data, computing capacity and standards required to support its wider adoption.
On Nigeria’s global competitiveness, Onuoha said the country improved its position in the 2025 Global Innovation Index, moving from 113th place in 2024 to 105th.
He also noted improvements in Nigeria’s Government AI Readiness ranking, which rose to the 70th position from 103rd in 2023.
Despite these improvements, he identified skills development, technology utilisation, regulatory effectiveness and the translation of policy commitments into measurable economic outcomes as areas requiring greater attention.
He also called for stronger digital inclusion, particularly in underserved communities, and improved access to digital infrastructure, including data centres, cloud services and computing resources needed to accelerate artificial intelligence development.
