The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, has called for a unified regulatory framework to attract investment and accelerate Nigeria’s digital economy.
Speaking at the ITW Data Cloud Africa 2026 event, Inuwa said investors face challenges navigating multiple government agencies. He urged government to operate through a single regulatory interface to reduce duplication, speed up licensing and provide predictable market-entry timelines.
He said emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and high-density data centres had made sector-by-sector regulation inadequate.
“NITDA is therefore adopting a horizontal framework of broad standards that sector regulators can build upon”, he added.
Inuwa cited the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative, through which the Central Bank of Nigeria used NITDA’s framework to issue a single circular for the financial sector, simplifying compliance for banks.
He also called for unified standards on cross-border data transfers based on interoperability, trust and security, including common data classifications to support seamless regional exchange.
Addressing concerns about revenue-driven regulation, Inuwa said NITDA’s Regulatory Intelligence Framework is designed to support business growth, create markets, build local capacity and attract long-term investment.
