When Kashifu Inuwa took the stage at the Digital Nigeria International Conference and Exhibition 2025, the hall was already buzzing with anticipation.
He didn’t begin with numbers or jargon. He began with a challenge and a belief.
“If we harness the energy, creativity, and talent of our youth,” he said, “we won’t just power Nigeria. We’ll power Africa into a new era of prosperity.”
The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) wasn’t speaking in abstracts. He was speaking to the faces before him; young innovators, developers, and entrepreneurs, the people who will define what Africa’s digital future looks like.
Held at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre in Abuja, the three-day conference brought together over 4,800 participants from 12 countries and 25 Nigerian states.
It was an ecosystem of thinkers, builders, policymakers, and investors all driven by a single vision: to make Nigeria’s digital economy not just sustainable, but globally competitive.
The Vice President’s presence at the opening ceremony underscored what Inuwa called “a powerful demonstration that this administration truly cares about our youth.”
Organised by NITDA, Digital Nigeria has evolved far beyond an annual tech gathering. It has become a national collaboration hub where government, private sector, and civil society converge to shape policy, share ideas, and push the limits of what’s possible through innovation.
This year’s theme, “Innovation for a Sustainable Digital Future: Accelerating Growth, Inclusion, and Global Competitiveness”, reflected President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which places digitalisation and industrial innovation at the heart of Nigeria’s economic transformation.
And as Inuwa pointed out, the stakes couldn’t be higher. With a population of over 220 million people and an average age of 18, Nigeria stands on a knife’s edge between potential and peril.
“If we fail to skill our youth, if we fail to give them platforms to create value,” he warned, “we are stunting the most valuable asset we have as a nation.”
The 2025 edition of the conference is structured around five thematic tracks:
Digital connectivity.
Digital skills and literacy.
Digital trade and innovation.
Digital public infrastructure and trust.
Artificial intelligence and emerging technologies.
Across 12 keynote sessions, 23 panels, 5 workshops, and 2 expert masterclasses, participants dissected how Nigeria can close skill gaps, scale local solutions, and position itself as a regional innovation powerhouse.
But for Inuwa, what matters most isn’t what’s discussed, it’s what gets done.
“Every handshake, every dialogue, every deal made here,” he urged, “should be driven by one conviction: Nigeria can do it. And we will do it.”
That spirit of possibility, and belief ran through the day’s conversations like a current.
Because at its core, Digital Nigeria 2025 isn’t just about coding or connectivity.
It’s about a generation choosing to shape its destiny.
