Nigeria’s digital transformation agenda took the spotlight at the 80th United Nations General Assembly (#UNGA80), where the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in a session hosted by HERitage House, led a high-level discussion on the theme “Tech is Infrastructure.”
The DG emphasised the importance of inclusive digital infrastructure as the foundation of Nigeria’s digital economy, underscoring the role of strategic government policy in ensuring access, resilience, and growth.
Outlining Nigeria’s vision for Artificial Intelligence (AI) readiness, he highlighted three key pillars: trusted and culturally reflective data, robust computing and storage capacity, and bias-free algorithms.
Addressing the digital divide, the DG spotlighted Project BRIDGE, a landmark initiative aimed at deploying 90,000 kilometres of fibre-optic cable to guarantee nationwide internet access.
He also unveiled milestones achieved under Nigeria’s innovative policymaking framework, including the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative (NSCI), designed to secure the nation’s digital independence, and N-ATLAS, Nigeria’s first multilingual AI model. Both initiatives, he said, exemplify co-creation in policy design through the Regulatory Intelligence Framework.
Concluding his remarks, the DG issued a call to global partners and investors, stressing that Nigeria’s digital infrastructure sector offers vast opportunities. “Nigeria is building a resilient and sovereign digital future,” he said, “and the world is invited to be part of it.”
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