NITDA DG: Nigeria Must Move Beyond Outsourcing to AI-Powered Digital Services

The Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, has said Nigeria must move beyond traditional outsourcing and build a stronger position in the global digital economy through artificial intelligence and technology-enabled services.

Inuwa stated this during the “Hire from Nigeria” session organised by the Nigeria Economic and Trade Advancement Programme, NATEP, on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The NITDA chief participated in the session alongside the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Jumoke Oduwole, and the Minister of Education, Moruf Alausa, where they discussed impact sourcing, global trade, digital skills and inclusive job creation.

Inuwa said Nigeria’s competitive advantage should extend beyond supplying labour to global companies, stressing the need to develop AI-augmented and IT-enabled services that can create greater economic value.

According to him, Nigerians should not only be trained to use emerging technologies but should also acquire the capacity to understand, develop and shape them.

The NITDA DG also highlighted Nigeria’s evolving digital frameworks covering data protection, digital identity, cybersecurity, digital infrastructure assurance, data classification, sovereign cloud and software quality assurance.

He said trust, security and regulatory certainty would be critical to attracting international businesses and establishing Nigeria as a dependable destination for digital services.

Inuwa also referenced Project BRIDGE, which targets the deployment of 90,000 kilometres of fibre infrastructure, as well as the Cloud First Policy and other measures aimed at encouraging private-sector investment in computing infrastructure and AI factories.

He further stressed the importance of ensuring that Nigerians and other underrepresented communities are reflected in the datasets used to develop artificial intelligence systems.

According to him, communities and economies that are absent from the data used to build intelligent systems risk being left out of technologies that will shape the future.

The NITDA boss said initiatives including the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy are helping to lay the foundation for indigenous AI capabilities while connecting Nigerian talent and innovation to opportunities in the global digital economy.

He said Nigeria’s opportunity should not be limited to supplying talent to international companies but should involve equipping Nigerian workers with AI skills, trusted digital infrastructure and globally competitive capabilities to deliver higher-value services to the world.