By Nkechi Eze
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has urged Nigeria to move beyond traditional outsourcing and position its workforce to take advantage of higher-value opportunities in the global artificial intelligence economy.
The Director-General/CEO of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, CCIE, made the call 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).
Abdullahi, who participated in a strategic discussion alongside the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, and the Minister of Education, Dr. Moruf Alausa, said Nigeria’s competitive advantage must extend beyond supplying talent for conventional outsourcing.
He said the rapid transformation driven by AI presents an opportunity for Nigeria to establish a distinctive position around AI-augmented and IT-enabled services.
According to him, Nigerians should be equipped not merely to use emerging technologies but to understand, develop and create economic value with them.
The NITDA boss also identified data protection, digital identity, cybersecurity, digital infrastructure assurance, data classification, sovereign cloud and software quality assurance as critical components of the digital ecosystem needed to attract global businesses.
He noted that trust, security and regulatory certainty would be essential to positioning Nigeria as a dependable destination for digital services.
Abdullahi further referenced Project BRIDGE, which targets the deployment of 90,000 kilometres of fibre infrastructure, as well as the Cloud First Policy and other measures aimed at attracting private-sector investment in computing infrastructure and AI factories.
He also stressed the importance of representation in the emerging AI economy, cautioning that communities and economies absent from datasets used to develop intelligent systems risk becoming underrepresented in technologies shaping the future.
The NITDA Director-General said initiatives such as the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR) and the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy were laying the foundation for indigenous AI capabilities while connecting Nigeria’s talent and innovation ecosystem to opportunities in the global digital economy.
He said Nigeria’s opportunity was not simply to supply talent to the world, but to equip Nigerian talent with AI, trusted digital infrastructure and globally competitive capabilities to deliver higher-value services to international markets.
