The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa has called for stronger inter-agency collaboration among government regulators to accelerate the rollout of Nigeria’s National Regulatory Sandbox.
Speaking through the National Coordinator of the Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI), Ms. Victoria Fabunmi, at the National Regulatory Sandbox Governance and Implementation Planning Workshop in Abuja, Inuwa emphasized that inter-agency cooperation is the cornerstone of an innovation-friendly regulatory ecosystem.
The Abuja workshop marks a crucial transition for the initiative, shifting focus from the design phase to implementation, where participating regulators will refine and validate the sandbox’s governance structure.
Key milestones laying the groundwork for the sandbox include extensive stakeholder consultations and ecosystem mapping, comprehensive regulatory assessments, the preparation of a draft governance and implementation framework by ONDI and the creation of a cross-agency Technical Working Group to align statutory mandates.
“The work completed so far provides a solid foundation, but the National Regulatory Sandbox can only achieve its objectives through collective ownership by all relevant regulatory institutions,” said Inuwa stated.
He noted that differing agency mandates should be viewed as strengths to build a flexible framework capable of adapting to emerging technologies.
Backing the initiative’s economic imperative, Ms. Ojonoka Yusufu, Implementing Partner Drive, highlighted that ICT remains one of Nigeria’s largest GDP contributors.
With local startups rapidly expanding beyond fintech into healthtech, mobility, and agritech, close regulatory coordination is vital to safeguard public trust while attracting global investment.
The National Regulatory Sandbox is anchored by the Nigeria Startup Act, establishing a solid legal foundation for responsible innovation. It allows startups to safely test and scale emerging technologies under active regulatory supervision. Additionally, the sandbox functions as a collaborative multi-agency governance mechanism that complements existing regulatory bodies without replacing them. Finally, it fosters a shared operational model among agencies to identify implementation gaps prior to a full launch.
Ultimately, the National Regulatory Sandbox aims to strengthen institutional partnerships, solidify a shared national vision for technology governance, and position Nigeria as a globally competitive hub for sustainable, technology-driven economic growth.