The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, CCIE, has called on African countries to make bold investments in digital public infrastructure, describing it as the cornerstone of the continent’s economic transformation and technological independence.
Speaking at the 2nd Annual Sustainability Week Africa, held at The Westin in Cape Town, Inuwa said Africa’s future prosperity depends on its capacity to build and control its own computing infrastructure — the “compute capacity” — which he described as essential for innovation, job creation, and intra-African trade.
“In the 21st century, compute power is a primary factor of production, and we cannot rely on exporting our raw data to other regions to process it and build products for us,” Inuwa stated during a panel discussion on Digital Infrastructure for Jobs and Trade in Africa.
The event, which brings together policymakers, industry leaders, and experts across the continent, focused on Africa’s role in driving energy transition, climate resilience, and sustainable development.
Inuwa emphasised that while artificial intelligence (AI) offers Africa a chance to leapfrog development stages, it can only be effective if supported by robust digital infrastructure. Drawing inspiration from Europe’s collaborative model of building high-performance supercomputers and AI factories, he urged African governments to create policy frameworks that attract private sector investment in computing and connectivity infrastructure.
According to the NITDA boss, Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) operates at two critical levels — the shared physical and technical layers, such as connectivity and cloud capacity, and the functional layer, which includes digital identity, payment systems, and data exchange platforms. Together, he said, they form the backbone for seamless public and private service delivery.
Highlighting Nigeria’s progress, Inuwa disclosed that more than 130 million Nigerians have been enrolled in the national digital identity system. He added that work is underway to establish a national data exchange platform and a DPI Centre of Excellence to promote interoperability and best practices across all tiers of government.
He credited Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, for spearheading the DPI Centre of Excellence initiative, aimed at developing indigenous digital exchange frameworks and standards that reflect African realities.
Inuwa also reiterated Nigeria’s commitment to achieving 95% digital literacy by 2030 and 70% by 2027, in line with the National Digital Literacy Framework.
He noted that digital skills training has become mandatory for students and civil servants, with ongoing partnerships involving Cisco and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to train youths, women, and traders on using digital and AI tools to improve livelihoods.
The NITDA DG further called for a continental policy framework to guide AI adoption and technology governance, stressing that digital transformation should be viewed not merely as a sector, but as an enabler for every aspect of economic growth.
“Africa must build its own digital circuits for self-determination,” he said.
“We cannot depend on other countries to be sending hardware and software to us because our goal is to build a better life for our citizens, and technology will help us achieve that,” he noted.
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