By Nojeed Gandour, Bureau Chief, Northern Africa
The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, has issued a spirited, visionary and compelling invitation to global investors to explore Nigeria’s burgeoning digital economy, describing it as a land of opportunity powered by a youthful, tech-savvy, and highly innovative population.
According to a press statement e-signed by the Director of Corporate Communications & Media Relations at NITDA, Hajia Hadiza Umar, the NITDA DG made this known when he engaged with global key players in the IT sector, including startups and investors during a GITEX Breakfast meeting at the GITEX Africa 2025 which is currently being held in Marrakech, Morocco.
Speaking ahead of GITEX Nigeria 2025, a major technology and investment conference set to take place from September 1 to 4 in Abuja, north central and Lagos, south west, Nigeria, Mallam Abdullahi painted a vibrant picture of Nigeria’s digital landscape where according to him, innovation met opportunity, and where government commitment aligned with grassroots entrepreneurial drive.
“Nigeria is a country with a large, youthful, innovative, creative, and highly competent workforce, where startups and scale-ups can continuously thrive, and where entrepreneurial spirit and technological advancement shape and create the landscape,” he stated.
Abdullahi emphasised that Nigeria, with over 70 per cent of its population under the age of 25, held one of the youngest populations globally, positioning it as a talent hub for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The NITDA boss further noted that the government’s vision aimed to elevate Nigeria into an emerging global digital economy through comprehensive reforms, infrastructure investment, and an aggressive digital literacy agenda.
“The president is also bullish about building our digital infrastructure and wants to establish our digital sovereignty, providing a platform for our citizens to develop digital offerings that Nigeria can take to the world,” he said.
While outlining initiatives aimed at embedding digital skills across the formal education system and enhancing national digital capabilities, he noted that the nation was not just teaching young people to consume technology but empowering them to create it.
Recognising the importance of digital sovereignty, Abdullahi added “We are also promoting cloud adoption because you cannot succeed today with on-prem infrastructure, but you need to be on the cloud, and you need to have agility.”
Underscoring the significance of Nigeria and Africa’s digital native population and boundless talent, Abdullahi mentioned that the continent should not just participate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution(4IR) but should lead.
He disclosed that the GITEX Nigeria conference was set to be a milestone moment with Abuja which was the nation’s policy capital, hosting discussions on investor-friendly reforms and policy frameworks, and Lagos, the home to Africa’s most vibrant startup ecosystem, showcasing the energy, innovation, and investment potentials.
“We have the talent and we have the digital native population and we are nurturing an innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystem because we need to challenge the status quo, we need to use technology to disrupt the way we do things and we need to create a collective intelligence where people work with technology to make lives better and that is the Nigeria we are creating,” he concluded.
In his remark, the sales director of ZOHO, Vijayaragavan Venugopal stated that Zoho had been predominantly focusing on the African market for the last 7 years and had witnessed tremendous growth in the African market, with Nigeria leading at the forefront.
“We are happy that we are going to be there in Nigeria along with GITEX and the event will not only empower the Nigeria market but the whole of Africa and it is going to be an opportunity to gather amongst each other, talk about tech, and grow together in the entire African market,” he said.
While giving her remark, the CEO of Alami Capital, Olu Olufemi White, highlighted the importance of investing in startups that center people in their solutions and challenged traditional investment approaches that ignored the human element.
Expressing her commitment to transforming communities through thoughtful and strategic innovation, she emphasised the need for impactful, innovative, and scalable ventures while however, noting that technology could only thrive with reliable energy and sustainable finance.
Appealing to everyone for active participation at the forthcoming GITEX Nigeria while making reference to the market activity from Google, Cisco, and Flutterwave, White said “You can start to see what happens when you support us. Please don’t wait till we become big and the rest of the world begins to tell our stories, we want you to tell it for us and we want to walk and work hand in hand with you to build the nation of our dreams.”
