IT Procurement Reforms Will Boost Local Innovation, Digital Sovereignty — NITDA DG

IT Procurement Reforms Will Boost Local Innovation, Digital Sovereignty — NITDA DG

The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, has said ongoing reforms in Information Technology (IT) procurement will strengthen local innovation, improve confidence in Nigerian-developed software and advance the country’s digital sovereignty.

Inuwa made this known at the 66th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where he spoke at a plenary session themed, “Nigeria First, Procurement Last: How E-commerce is Rewriting Contracts.”

He said the reforms were designed to support the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly its objectives of reforming the economy, improving governance and accelerating diversification through industrialisation and digitisation.

According to him, the measures would also strengthen public procurement under the Nigeria First policy and ensure that government investments in technology deliver measurable value while contributing to the growth of the digital economy.

Inuwa disclosed that between July 2023 and July 2026, NITDA received proposals for 1,092 IT projects from 326 Ministries, Departments and Agencies, out of more than 1,300 MDAs in the country.

He said the proposed projects were valued at over ₦4.24 trillion, while 1,056 projects worth ₦3.84 trillion had been cleared by the agency.

The NITDA boss identified three major reforms being implemented to address challenges associated with IT project planning, software adoption and digital infrastructure.

He said the first was the strengthening of the IT Project Clearance Framework, which would require MDAs to have a proper solution design before making budgetary provisions for IT projects.

“Companies providing solution design, implementation and quality assurance services will be certified, with safeguards to ensure that the three functions are not performed by the same organisation on a single project,” he said.

Drawing an analogy with the construction industry, Inuwa explained that IT projects, like buildings, should be properly designed before implementation.

He said the approach would promote standardisation, strengthen accountability and ensure better value for money in government technology investments.

The second reform, according to him, is the Software Assurance Framework, being developed to increase confidence in locally developed software and reduce dependence on off-the-shelf foreign solutions.

Inuwa noted that Nigerian organisations often spend substantial resources customising software developed for foreign markets to suit local needs, only to incur additional costs when vendors introduce new versions.

He said Nigerian businesses and public institutions had unique operational requirements, making it necessary to develop and adopt solutions that respond to local realities.

To address the challenge, he said NITDA was promoting solution design, software testing, standards and assurance, including the licensing of software testing companies to assess locally developed solutions.

The third reform is tied to NITDA’s National Sovereign Cloud Initiative, which seeks to strengthen Nigeria’s digital sovereignty and build national capacity for digital self-determination.

“When we talk about digital sovereignty, it’s about us as a nation to build the capability for digital self-determination,” Inuwa said.

He explained that the initiative would strengthen Nigeria’s digital public infrastructure and create opportunities for locally developed innovations to be built, hosted and scaled within the country.

He added that the framework provides for certification across key segments of the cloud ecosystem, including infrastructure providers and data centres, cloud service providers, system integrators and cloud aggregators, while establishing requirements for sensitive and critical data.

Beyond technology procurement, the NITDA DG urged stakeholders to regard public procurement as a strategic instrument for building national capabilities, shaping markets and creating opportunities for Nigerian innovators.

“We look at public procurement not just as a way of government spending money, but as a powerful instrument government has for shaping markets, for building our national capabilities, as well as for creating opportunities for our innovators,” he said.

Inuwa cited the growth of Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem as an example of how deliberate government policies and market opportunities could stimulate innovation, urging stakeholders to explore similar opportunities in healthcare, education, agriculture and other critical sectors.

He also advised public institutions to rethink how they specify IT requirements, urging them to focus less on prescribing specific technologies and more on defining the problems they want to solve, the programmes they intend to implement and the outcomes they expect to achieve.

The NITDA DG further highlighted the role of lawyers in ensuring that technology contracts adequately address issues including data ownership, data processing and storage, data portability, intellectual property, cybersecurity and contractual responsibilities.

He said greater clarity in technology contracts would strengthen the protection of public institutions and boost confidence in government technology investments.

Inuwa maintained that the reforms, when effectively implemented, would help transform public procurement from a routine government expenditure process into a strategic tool for promoting local innovation, building digital capacity and securing Nigeria’s long-term digital sovereignty.