The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, has strongly asserted that Africa’s path to sustainable transformation and significant economic growth hinges on a forceful investment in local digital public infrastructure (DPI).
Speaking at the 2nd annual Sustainability Week Africa in Cape Town, South Africa, Inuwa described Africa’s own “compute capacity” as the bedrock for digital self-determination, job creation, and boosting intra-African trade. He stressed that a failure to invest locally would leave the continent reliant on others for core digital services.
The Imperative of ‘Compute Power’ and Digital Independence
During a panel session on Digital Infrastructure for Jobs and Trade in Africa, the NITDA DG emphasized the urgent need for African nations to develop their own computing infrastructure to achieve digital independence and global competitiveness.
- Compute as a Production Factor: Inuwa argued that in the 21st century, “compute power is a primary factor of production,” and Africa cannot afford to “rely on exporting our raw data to other regions to process it and build products for us.”
- Leveraging AI Locally: While Africa can use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to accelerate development, it must first build the necessary computing capacity to sustain that innovation locally.
- A Call for Collaborative Models: Drawing inspiration from Europe’s collective approach to developing supercomputers and AI factories, Inuwa urged African governments to implement policies that attract private sector investment into digital infrastructure across the continent.
Building the Digital Rails: Nigeria’s Model
Inuwa clarified that Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) works on two levels: the shared physical and technical layer (like connectivity and cloud capacity) and the functional layer (digital identity, payment systems, and data exchange platforms) that allow citizens and businesses to access services easily.
The DG highlighted Nigeria’s efforts as a potential model:
- Digital Identity Success: More than 130 million Nigerians have been enrolled in the national digital identity system.
- DPI Centre of Excellence: Efforts are underway to establish a DPI Centre of Excellence to foster interoperability, build core components like data exchange wells and APIs, and promote best practices across all government tiers. This initiative, led by the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, aims to create an “African-built DPI” that truly reflects local needs.
Prioritizing Digital Literacy and Policy
Beyond physical infrastructure, the NITDA boss outlined Nigeria’s commitment to building a skilled workforce:
- Digital Literacy Goals: Nigeria is aggressively pursuing its target of 95% digital literacy by 2030 (with a 70% milestone by 2027) through the National Digital Literacy Framework.
- Mandatory Skills: Digital skills are now mandatory for students and civil servants, with partnerships (like those with Cisco and the NYSC) focused on training youth, women, and traders to use digital tools and AI applications.
In conclusion, Inuwa stressed that digital transformation is not a sector but an enabler for every part of the economy. He called for clear policy frameworks to guide technology development and adoption across Africa.
“Africa’s advantage lies in our ability to leap, to build collaboratively, and to design technology for inclusion,” he stated. He ended with a powerful call for stronger coordination: “If we build the digital rails together, our youth will drive Africa straight into the heart of the global digital economy.”