The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, CCIE, has stated that Africa’s economic future depends on the continent’s ability to build and control its own digital infrastructure. He warned that Africa will continue to lag behind in global competitiveness if it relies on foreign technologies to drive its digital transformation.
Speaking at the 2nd Annual Sustainability Week Africa, held at The Westin in Cape Town, South Africa, Inuwa stressed that Africa must urgently invest in computing capacity and digital public infrastructure to create jobs, strengthen intra-African trade, and achieve technological independence. The forum, organised by Economist Impact, gathered policymakers, technology leaders, investors, and development partners to explore practical steps for accelerating digital and green growth across the continent.
During a panel session tagged “Digital Infrastructure for Jobs and Trade in Africa,” Inuwa noted that data and computing power have become central to economic productivity in the 21st century. He argued that Africa risks remaining a consumer in the digital economy if it continues exporting data only for it to be processed abroad and resold in the form of technological products.
“In the 21st century, compute power is a primary factor of production,” he said. “We cannot continue exporting our raw data to be processed elsewhere. If we do not build the capacity to process data locally, others will create the products and value from it — and we will remain dependent.”
Inuwa highlighted collaborative investment models used in Europe to develop high-performance computing capabilities and urged African governments to adopt similar approaches by providing policy incentives that enable private-sector-led digital infrastructure development. He pointed to Nigeria’s progress, noting that more than 130 million citizens have now been enrolled in the national digital identity ecosystem, while work is ongoing to develop a national data exchange platform that will allow seamless and secure access to government services. He added that the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, is championing the establishment of a Digital Public Infrastructure Centre of Excellence, where African engineers can build shared platforms, APIs and standards tailored to local needs.
The NITDA DG also reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to expanding digital literacy, noting the government’s targets of achieving 70% digital literacy by 2027 and 95% by 2030. He said ongoing partnerships with global tech companies and training institutions are equipping young people, women and small business operators with digital skills and AI-based productivity tools.
Inuwa emphasized that technology development in Africa must be guided by the principle of digital self-determination. “We must not rely on imported hardware and software to solve African problems. Our goal is to build technology that reflects the realities of our people and enhances their lives,” he said. Calling for greater continental coordination, he noted that standardizing and scaling homegrown innovation will allow Africa to harness its demographic advantage and transform its economic outlook.
“Africa’s advantage lies in our ability to leap — to build collaboratively and design technology for inclusion. If we build the digital rails together, our youth will drive Africa straight into the heart of the global digital economy,” he concluded.
Other panelists at the session were Ronell Govender of Naspers, Ani Charles Bassey-Eyo of LANI Group, Manjit Dhillon of Helios Towers, Hannah Hanawanza-Redders of Data for Change Foundation, and Sam Rolland of the Economist Intelligence Corporate Network.
Great job simplifying something so complex.