The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr. Kashifu Inuwa, has stated that the policies formulated under President Bola Tinubu’s administration are focused on fostering a future economy.
At the recent GITEX AI Summit held in Lagos, Inuwa defined the future economy as one characterised by abundant intelligence, technology surpassing human capabilities, and prosperity generated through human endeavours that go beyond mere physical resources.
He emphasised President Tinubu’s commitment to diversification and inclusivity as part of the Renewed Hope Agenda, highlighting priority seven, which focuses on innovation and digitalisation.
Through NITDA, policies and strategies have been developed to enhance Nigeria’s contributions to the future economy, recognising that people are the greatest resource.
Inuwa mentioned that President Tinubu aims to produce graduates equipped for the future economy, which necessitates the integration of digital skills into the formal education system.
He noted that this initiative has led to the establishment of acceleration programs and deep research investments in advanced technologies, considering their potential to significantly boost productivity in critical sectors.
The DG also highlighted the creation of an enabling environment for digital innovations aimed at fostering a future economy, particularly through the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative, which promotes digital self-determination.
Inuwa pointed out that the government is shifting its perspective on infrastructure, expanding the definition to include not only roads but also digital infrastructure, connectivity, reliable power, and algorithms.
He called for support from all stakeholders to continue advancing the future economy.
“I want you to imagine an economy where intelligence becomes abundance, an economy where technology expands human capability, where prosperity is increasingly created by what human or people can think, imagine, learn, do and solve not by limited physical resources in our possession.
“So, this is the economy of the future. We are witnessing the rebirth of everything we do-from the way we learn, the way we connect, transact and do everything.
“Underneath this economy is human intelligence. How can we harness this intelligence to create things in abundance AI and emerging technologies can help us achieve. The nation needs to be intentional if we want to be an active participant in this economy.
“On assuming office, President Bola Tinubu made it clear that diversification and inclusivity are paramount to his Renewed Hope Agenda. He sets the priority areas to achieve this- with priority number seven, focusing on accelerating diversification through innovation and digitalization.
“To achieve this at NITDA and the Ministry in general, we have designed a policy and strategy to ensure that Nigeria is not just a participant but active contributor to the future economy. We see our people as the greatest resource to our nation because the economy is about people, talent and knowledge. Therefore, we put that at the forefront of our initiative.
“Under the directive of Mr President, we are integrating digital skills into our formal education. He wants us to be producing graduates that can meaningfully contribute to the future economy.
“We have some acceleration programmes to infuse into them the skills they need to succeed in the future we are building. We also focus on deep research because we believe skills and literacy are quickening but for the future we need to invest in deep tech. We have to focus on AI, IoT, emotive and additive manufacturing. All these are general purpose technology that can help us triple productivity in all critical sectors.
“After empowering our people with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed, the next thing we need is to create an enabling environment. In Africa and Nigeria, we are blessed with young talented people. We also have real-world problems that need innovative solutions. Hence, we need to create an enabling environment for them to create the digital offerings for the future economy.
“We have many policies, the recent one is the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative, we are looking at how can we build as a nation the digital self determination. Looking at our data and cloud sovereignty, we don’t want to be at the receiving end. We want to be an active builder of this knowledge. We have policies on PKI, electronic invoicing. All these are to create the enabling environment.
“Government is resetting the thinking about infrastructure so that it’s not just about the conventional like the roads. We need to be intentional in building the digital infrastructure, the connectivity, complete power, the algorithm we need. So, we have many initiatives -the President has approved Project Bridge which is about rolling about 90,000 fibre optics. We also issued the guidelines for the Cloud First Policy so that we can have start-ups building digital offerings at scale.
“We can’t do it in isolation. We need the global ecosystem to be part of it. Our resolve is stronger than ever. We are going to make history. So, please come work with us,” he said.