By Angeline Mgbele, Bureau Chief, Northern Nigeria
As part of its continued effort toward the actualisation of the current administration’s agenda of strengthening national security by committing to robust cybersecurity measures and digital trust to safeguard the nation’s digital infrastructure as well as contribute to the overall peace and prosperity of the nation, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Cybersecurity training and upskilling company with headquarters in France, SecDojo, SAS to strengthen national resilience against cyber threats through targeted capacity building initiatives.
According to a press statement just released by the Director of Corporate Communications &Media Relations at NITDA, Hajia Hadiza Umar, the signing ceremony took place during GITEX Africa 2025 event in Marrakech, Morocco, with the Director-General of NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, and Chief Executive Officer of SecDojo, Younes Benzagmout, representing both organisations.
Cyber Era NG learns that this strategic partnership is designed to bolster Nigeria’s cybersecurity landscape through comprehensive capacity-building initiatives and the collaboration will focus on the establishment of a Cybersecurity Academy, delivery of advanced training and simulation programmes, development of customised curricula and educational resources, and facilitation of research, knowledge sharing, and professional exchange programmes.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Mallam Abdullahi expressed his enthusiasm about the collaboration, describing it as a key milestone in Nigeria’s journey toward a secure digital future.
“We just signed an MOU with SecDojo, which is a cybersecurity capacity-building provider, and this is one of our efforts to strengthen our national cybersecurity to enhance our cyber resilience,” Abdullahi noted.
He asserted that as Nigeria continued its digital transformation journey, investing in human capital was paramount, describing people as the technology component of any innovation ecosystem.
The NITDA DG also noted the growing global demand for cybersecurity professionals and emphasised Nigeria’s potential to fill the talent gap, given its large and youthful population.
“Globally, we have the gap, and in Nigeria, we have a young population that if we harness, well, we can train them and connect them with the global value chain to provide cybersecurity services and also to fill some roles and gaps in the global cybersecurity market,” he averred.
While pushing for digital skills integration into Nigeria’s formal education system, the NITDA boss called for deeper collaboration between technology stakeholders and the Federal Ministry of Education to embed digital literacy and cybersecurity training into Nigeria’s formal education system.
He stated that, there was an urgent need to shift from short-term skills acceleration programmes to long-term, systemic integration of digital skills into academic curricula at all levels, from primary to tertiary education.
“For me, this goes beyond NITDA. I see a national opportunity, one that involves the Ministry of Education, to institutionalise digital literacy through formal education,” he said.
“Currently, what NITDA offers are skills acceleration programmes because these critical digital competencies are not taught in schools. But to prepare for the future, we must embed these skills into our national education framework,” he added.
Highlighting successful models such as Cisco’s academic integration, which allowed students in over 100 Nigerian universities to earn both degrees and professional certifications simultaneously, he stressed the benefits of a dual-track learning system that equipped graduates for immediate relevance in the digital economy.
He noted that while Cisco had led the way, the ecosystem must be open to multiple partners, especially those aligned with Nigeria’s National Digital Literacy Framework, and encouraged tech firms and content providers to collaborate, offering open-source or customized content that could be adopted nationally.
“We don’t want to limit this to a single vendor. The opportunity is open to all. Google has shown interest, and we welcome more partners. There are committees already working with the Ministry, and we’d love to see more stakeholders at the table,” he concluded.
In his remark, Mr. Benzagmout, expressed his enthusiasm for the collaboration and reaffirmed the company’s commitment to working closely with Nigerian stakeholders.
Benzagmout noted that the collaboration aimed to bring SecDojo’s innovative training platforms and methodologies to support Nigeria’s cybersecurity professionals while contributing to the development and execution of a comprehensive national cyber capacity-building strategy.
“We sincerely thank NITDA for their trust and partnership and we are excited to begin this journey and look forward to building a successful and impactful collaboration,” he assured.
Cyber Era NG further understands that this partnership is non-binding and at no cost to NITDA or Nigeria. SecDejo will provide its online platform for our citizens to build their capacity in cybersecurity solutions.
