The Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, has called for a strategic pivot in Africa’s digital strategy, urging global and regional stakeholders to shift focus from building classrooms to funding the critical transition between learning and earning.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA81) during a high-level panel at “Nigeria at Scale: Building Digital Systems for Shared Prosperity,” Abdullahi argued that Africa has successfully industrialized training but failed to industrialize the transition to economic opportunity.
He highlighted three major hurdles young people face: the “trust gate” for skill verification, the “platform and connectivity gate” plagued by infrastructure deficits, and the “demand gate” where labour market supply outpaces formal jobs.
To tackle these bottlenecks, Abdullahi pointed to Nigeria’s comprehensive framework, which links digital training with infrastructure initiatives like ProjectBRIDGE to expand the national fibre backbone to 125,000 kilometres.
The NITDA DG also emphasized that digital inclusion must extend beyond tech jobs to empower everyday informal workers such as traders, farmers, and artisans ensuring technology translates into lower costs and better livelihoods.