Browsing: Nigeria Tech Outlook Report

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has launched the Nigeria Tech Outlook Report and Dashboard, an initiative to provide reliable data on the country’s technology scene to guide policy decisions, investment, and innovation in the digital economy. The DirectorGeneral of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, CCIE, launched the report on the sidelines of the Digital Nigeria International Conference and Exhibition (DNICE), explaining that the initiative would address the longstanding shortage of credible, locally generated data needed to understand the country’s technology sector and attract investment.  Nigeria had largely depended on data from the World Bank and other international institutions to inform decisions in the technology sector, stressing that the country needed its own reliable baseline data to support effective regulation and planning, Abdullahi said.  NITDA had been working with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the sector, stressing that both institutions must continue to cocreate the data needed to track the country’s digital transformation. He added that providing this information forms part of NITDA’s responsibility to create an enabling environment for investment and innovation in the technology sector, he noted. The conventional measurement of the digital economy, which largely captures the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector in national GDP figures, does not reflect the extent to which technology now drives activities across other sectors, including finance and the media, the DG explained. He said a broader understanding of the digital economy was necessary to accurately measure technology’s contribution to economic activities and identify areas where innovation could make a difference. Highlighting the investment opportunities revealed by the report, Inuwa pointed to significant gaps in healthcare, financial services and digital devices, disclosing that although more than 80 per cent of Nigerians had used telemedicine at some point, fewer than 20 per cent had actually accessed the service, indicating a considerable gap between demand and availability. He identified health technology as an area with strong investment potential, given Nigerians’ willingness to pay for quality healthcare services. In the financial sector, the report showed that while more than 80 per cent of Nigerian adults had bank accounts, fewer than 20 per cent had accessed digital credit. Abdullahi noted that technology could help address the trust and information gaps that often prevent small businesses from securing loans, explaining that digital records and transaction histories could give financial institutions better visibility into the activities and creditworthiness of small and medium-sized enterprises. According to him, the report is intended to give investors a clearer picture of market potential, unmet demand and areas where existing services are yet to reach enough Nigerians, adding that access to such intelligence would reduce the burden on investors to spend additional resources conducting preliminary market research, while helping them identify opportunities and assess risks before committing capital. The NITDA DG announced that the Nigeria Tech Outlook Report would become an annual publication, with the second edition expected to be ready by June 1, 2027.   He assured that the Agency would deepen its collaboration with the NBS and other regulatory institutions to ensure the timely collection and exchange of relevant datasets.   He also revealed plans to develop the report into an interactive portal where citizens, investors and other stakeholders can explore information, submit feedback and suggest improvements, supported by realtime data exchange among regulators. …