The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, has called on industry leaders across Africa to urgently integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their business and operational models. The goal is to unlock new opportunities, drive smarter decision-making, and ensure the continent becomes deeply rooted in AI-driven innovation.
Inuwa made the call while speaking on “Harnessing AI for Strategic Leadership” during a panel session at the GITEX Africa 2025 summit in Marrakech. He positioned Africa, and particularly Nigeria, as a rising force in the global AI landscape, championing a people-first, strategy-led approach to technology governance.
Addressing an international audience, the DG argued that to be effective in today’s dynamic environment, leaders must evolve into AI-driven leaders who leverage technology as a partner in decision-making.
“AI is shifting the skills we value today, as well as the processes we use to do our daily work,” Inuwa noted. He urged leaders to combine AI with the unique strengths of their teams to deliver real business value, emphasizing that “Strategy must always come first, and technology second.”
He outlined four principles for effectively utilizing generative AI in organizations:
- Inviting AI to the table by giving it a defined role in organizational tasks.
- Maintaining human oversight to correct bias and misjudgment.
- Designing models with guardrails to ensure privacy, ethics, and inclusivity.
- Adopting a mindset of continuous improvement, treating today’s AI as the least capable version available.
Inuwa also issued a strong warning against deploying AI systems built on data that fails to represent the diverse realities of global societies. He cautioned that if data does not “see” a community, the resulting AI system will also fail to see and serve it.
To manage the deployment of AI responsibly, Inuwa introduced NITDA’s Regulatory Intelligence Framework, which is anchored on three pillars: Awareness, Intelligence, and Dynamism.
He explained that this framework adopts a two-pronged regulatory approach:
- Rule-based: Involves strict guidelines and compliance requirements.
- Non-rule-based: Allows the industry to build use cases, agree on best practices, and establish guardrails collaboratively—an approach he considers superior for regulating fast-moving AI technology.
Envisioning Africa’s AI future, Inuwa painted a visionary picture where the continent integrates AI into solving real-world challenges in every economic sector, effectively leapfrogging development gaps.
“We missed the first, second, and third industrial revolutions, but this fourth one, we must lead it and not just follow,” he concluded.
Other industry leaders on the panel included Philip Thigo (Special Envoy on Technology, Republic of Kenya) and Emmanuel Lubanzadio (Head of Africa, OpenAI).