Nigeria must move beyond traditional outsourcing and position itself as a global hub for artificial intelligence-enabled digital services, the Director-General/CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, CCIE, has said.

Abdullahi stated this on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA81) during the “Hire from Nigeria” session organised by the Nigeria Economic and Trade Advancement Programme (NATEP).

The session brought together the NITDA chief and the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, as well as the Minister of Education, Dr Moruf Alausa, for discussions on impact sourcing, global trade, skills development and inclusive job creation.

Abdullahi said Nigeria’s growing digital economy presented an opportunity to redefine its role in the global services market by transitioning from conventional business process outsourcing to artificial intelligence-augmented and IT-enabled services.

According to him, the country’s competitive advantage should not be limited to providing a workforce for global businesses, but should focus on equipping Nigerians with the capabilities to understand, develop and apply emerging technologies to create higher-value economic opportunities.

He noted that the rapid advancement of AI was reshaping the global economy, making it imperative for Nigeria to prepare its workforce not only to use the technology but also to participate in its development and deployment.

The NITDA DG also highlighted the importance of trust and security in attracting international businesses to Nigeria’s digital services ecosystem.

He pointed to the country’s evolving frameworks and initiatives covering data protection, digital identity, cybersecurity, digital infrastructure assurance, data classification, sovereign cloud and software quality assurance as key components for building confidence among global investors and service providers.

Abdullahi further cited Project BRIDGE, which targets the deployment of 90,000 kilometres of fibre infrastructure, alongside the Federal Government’s Cloud First Policy and other initiatives designed to stimulate private-sector investment in computing infrastructure and AI factories.

He said stronger digital infrastructure would be critical to enabling Nigeria’s growing technology workforce to participate meaningfully in the global digital economy.

The NITDA chief also stressed the importance of representation in the development of artificial intelligence, warning that countries and communities excluded from datasets used to develop AI systems could face the risk of being underrepresented in technologies that increasingly influence economic and social life.

He noted that Nigeria was already taking steps to develop indigenous AI capabilities through initiatives such as the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR) and the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy.

According to him, these efforts are intended to strengthen Nigeria’s domestic innovation ecosystem while connecting the country’s technology talent with emerging opportunities in the global digital economy.

Abdullahi’s intervention at the session reinforced the need for Nigeria to transition from being primarily a supplier of digital labour to becoming a producer of higher-value technology-enabled services.

He said the country’s opportunity lies in combining its human capital with artificial intelligence, trusted digital infrastructure and strong regulatory frameworks to compete more effectively in the evolving global digital services market.

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The Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, CCIE, has described digital identity as the foundational “trust layer” required to unlock Nigeria’s digital economy and expand access to essential services.

Abdullahi made the submission while participating in a high-level panel session titled “Identity in Action and Access to the Digital Economy,” convened by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) as part of discussions on “The Digital Public Ecosystem: Identity, Trust & Inclusive Access” at the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA81).

The session brought together key stakeholders, including the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Senator Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia; National Coordinator of the Renewed Hope National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, Aderemi Adebowale; and Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flutterwave, Olugbenga Agboola.

The discussion was moderated by Diwura Oladepo, Executive Director of Technology for Social Change and Development (Tech4Dev).

Speaking on how Nigeria could leverage digital identity to expand access to services and strengthen interoperable Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), Abdullahi stressed that digital identity should be viewed beyond a card or identification number.

“Digital identity is the trust layer of the digital economy,” he said.

According to him, a trusted digital identity infrastructure could reshape Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem by allowing authorised innovators and service providers to build on existing foundational identity systems rather than creating separate and fragmented identity platforms.

He said such interoperability could accelerate customer onboarding, reduce verification costs and expand access to trusted digital services across sectors including financial technology, healthcare, education, agriculture, insurance and government.

The NITDA DG illustrated the potential of an interconnected digital public ecosystem with the example of a farmer who could use the National Identification Number (NIN) to establish identity, verify eligibility through an agricultural platform, receive support through a payment system and access authorised government services through trusted data exchange.

Such an ecosystem, he noted, would reduce the need for citizens to repeatedly provide the same information to different institutions while improving the efficiency and accessibility of public and private services.

Abdullahi, however, stressed that the growing scale of digital identity must now translate into practical and trusted services for citizens.

He said Nigeria’s priority should progressively shift from merely establishing identity to ensuring that identity infrastructure becomes useful, secure and interoperable across the digital economy.

“Digital identity is not the destination; it is the doorway,” he stated.

The NITDA chief said the ultimate objective should be to build a trusted and secure digital ecosystem capable of enabling Nigerians, irrespective of their location, gender or economic circumstances, to access services, participate safely in the digital economy and unlock new opportunities.

The discussions at the UNGA81 panel therefore highlighted the importance of moving from identity enrolment to identity-enabled opportunity, with interoperability and trust positioned as critical elements of Nigeria’s digital transformation journey.

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