NITDA DG, Inuwa Advocates for Innovation-Led Digital Boom in North

 

Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mr. Kashifu Inuwa, has urged Northern Nigeria to move urgently from traditional commerce to an innovation-driven digital economy for sustainable growth.

Inuwa made the call at the Future Map Foundation Roundtable 1.0 (North-West Edition) in Kano, while attributing the region’s sluggish digital adoption not to talent deficits but to the lack of deliberate, coordinated strategies. ​

The NITDA DG urged for deeper collaboration across academia, private sector players, entrepreneurs, and government, positioning the private sector as the primary innovation engine while government supplies robust policies and an enabling ecosystem.

He advocated for people-focused, locally tailored innovations that tackle regional challenges head-on, enabling global competitiveness by transitioning from mere technology users to creators of homegrown solutions.

The roundtable assembled policymakers, tech founders, and ecosystem stakeholders to forge a comprehensive roadmap for North-West digital transformation, yielding firm commitments to bolster regional innovation policies and public-private synergies.

Inuwa’s push combines seamlessly with the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which sets an ambitious target of 95 per cent nationwide digital literacy by 2030, fostering inclusive economic empowerment.

Participants welcomed the forum as a pivotal step toward unlocking Northern Nigeria’s tech potential, with NITDA poised to lead implementation through strategic interventions and partnerships.