The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, CCIE, has disclosed that the agency is implementing a raft of reforms to strengthen Information Technology (IT) procurement, boost confidence in locally developed software and deepen Nigeria’s digital sovereignty.
Inuwa made the disclosure at the 66th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where he spoke at a plenary session themed “Nigeria First, Procurement Last: How E-commerce is Rewriting Contracts.”
He said the reforms were part of NITDA’s efforts to support the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly its focus on reforming the economy for sustained and inclusive growth, improving governance and service delivery, and accelerating economic diversification through industrialisation and digitisation.
According to him, the measures are also designed to strengthen public procurement under the Nigeria First policy, ensuring that government investments in technology deliver measurable value while contributing to the expansion of the country’s digital economy.
Inuwa disclosed that between July 2023 and July 2026, NITDA received proposals for 1,092 IT projects from 326 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), out of more than 1,300 MDAs nationwide.
He said the proposed projects were valued at over N4.24 trillion, while the agency cleared 1,056 projects worth N3.84 trillion.
The NITDA boss identified three major reforms being implemented by the agency to address challenges relating to IT project planning, software adoption and digital infrastructure.
He said the first was the strengthening of the IT Project Clearance Framework, under which MDAs would be required to develop a proper solution design before making budgetary provisions for IT projects.
“The first is the strengthening of the IT Project Clearance Framework, under which MDAs will be required to have a proper solution design before making budgetary provisions for IT projects,” he said.
According to him, NITDA would certify companies providing solution design, implementation and quality assurance services, while safeguards would be introduced to ensure that the three functions were not performed by the same organisation on a single project.
He likened the process to the construction industry, where architectural designs are required before buildings are constructed, stressing that IT projects should similarly be properly designed before implementation.
He said the approach would promote standardisation, enhance accountability and ensure better value for money in government’s technology investments.
The second reform, he explained, was the Software Assurance Framework, which is being developed to build greater confidence in locally developed software and reduce the country’s dependence on off-the-shelf foreign solutions.
Inuwa observed that many Nigerian organisations spend substantial resources customising software developed for foreign markets to suit local requirements, only to incur additional costs when vendors introduce new versions.
He argued that Nigerian organisations have distinct business objectives and operational requirements, making it imperative to develop and adopt solutions that adequately respond to local realities.
To address the challenge, he said NITDA was promoting solution design, software testing, standards and assurance, including the licensing of software testing companies to assess locally developed solutions.
The third reform, he said, was tied to NITDA’s National Sovereign Cloud Initiative, which seeks to strengthen Nigeria’s digital sovereignty and enhance the country’s capacity for digital self-determination.
“When we talk about digital sovereignty, it’s about us as a nation to build the capability for digital self-determination,” Inuwa said.
He explained that the initiative would strengthen Nigeria’s digital public infrastructure while creating greater opportunities for locally developed innovations to be built, hosted and scaled within the country.
He said the framework provides for certification across key segments of the cloud ecosystem, including infrastructure providers and data centres, cloud service providers, system integrators and cloud aggregators, while establishing appropriate requirements for sensitive and critical data.
Beyond technology procurement, the NITDA DG urged stakeholders to regard public procurement as a strategic instrument for developing national capabilities, shaping markets 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 an example of what deliberate policy interventions and market opportunities could achieve, urging stakeholders to explore similar opportunities in healthcare, education, agriculture and other sectors.
He also called on public institutions to rethink how they specify IT requirements, advising them to focus less on prescribing specific technologies and more on clearly defining the problems they seek to solve, the programmes they intend to implement and the outcomes they expect to achieve.
He further underscored the critical role of the legal profession in ensuring that technology contracts adequately address issues around data ownership, data processing and storage, data portability, intellectual property, cybersecurity and contractual responsibilities.
According to him, greater clarity in technology contracts would strengthen the protection of public institutions and enhance confidence in government’s technology investments.
He added that the reforms were ultimately aimed at repositioning public procurement as a catalyst for local innovation, digital capacity development and Nigeria’s long-term digital sovereignty.
