News Highlights:
- Federal Government is advancing e-governance and digital economy legislation while implementing Nigeria’s AI roadmap, cloud-first policy, and digital infrastructure reforms.
- Nigeria’s participation in the GIST initiative signals its growing role in global digital governance, with international partners.
Nigeria is accelerating efforts to secure its digital future through a sweeping regulatory and governance overhaul aimed at strengthening artificial intelligence deployment, cloud infrastructure, and public sector digital transformation.
At the Global Partnership for Human-Centric ICT Standardisation (GIST) Nigeria Introductory Stakeholder Workshop in Abuja, the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, representing the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, disclosed that the Federal Government is intensifying work on its e-governance and digital economy bill as part of broader reforms to position the country for emerging technological realities.
The renewed push signals a shift from policy formulation to institutional implementation, particularly in artificial intelligence governance.
Inuwa said Nigeria has moved beyond strategy development and is now actively executing its national AI roadmap, with a strong focus on regulation and ethical deployment.
He noted that the current stage centres on creating clear operational frameworks that ensure AI technologies are deployed responsibly, with safeguards for accountability, ethics, and national security.
As part of this strategy, the government is also advancing national data classification initiatives to guarantee access to clean, structured, and reliable datasets required for effective AI model training.
At the same time, authorities are scaling cloud adoption across government institutions under a “cloud-first” policy designed to improve operational efficiency, service delivery, and institutional scalability.
Inuwa warned that reliance on traditional on-premise systems could undermine Nigeria’s ambitions for large-scale digital transformation, stressing the urgency of modernising infrastructure while preserving national control over sensitive digital assets.
He, however, emphasised that cloud integration would be pursued cautiously to protect Nigeria’s digital sovereignty and secure critical national data.
Significant progress is also being made in public sector digitisation through the development of an interoperability framework, the Nigerian Government Enterprise Architecture, and an emerging data exchange platform to support Government Statistics Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI).
These initiatives are expected to improve data sharing and coordination across Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), while harmonising digital projects and opening new channels for private sector collaboration.
Inuwa stressed the importance of stronger partnerships among government, industry, and development stakeholders in building resilient digital systems, expressing confidence that the proposed legislation and associated reforms would improve Nigeria’s global digital governance profile while fostering innovation, transparency, and inclusive economic growth.
Earlier, the European Commission’s Team Leader for Digital Governance, Peter Marien of DG INTPA, underscored the strategic importance of international collaboration in shaping digital governance standards.
He said the European Union’s digital strategy places significant emphasis on ecosystem alignment and partnerships across regions, including Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
Marien referenced a recent Brussels engagement on e-governance organised with Smart Africa, which featured NITDA’s participation, describing Nigeria’s involvement in the GIST initiative as a strong demonstration of its commitment to international digital governance.
He noted that the EU’s approach prioritises a human-centric digital ecosystem rooted in inclusivity, privacy, and security, adding that its 27 member states have spent more than two decades building a cohesive citizen-focused digital framework.
Marien also identified Nigeria as a major force in Africa’s push for a unified digital market, particularly through its influence on cross-border digital integration.
According to him, standards represent the “invisible backbone” of modern societies, underpinning essential systems across multiple sectors, while the GIST platform serves as a critical mechanism for aligning technical standards and promoting cross-regional knowledge exchange.
