The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, has recounted how his career in technology began during his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) year over two decades ago.

Addressing Corp members at the grand finale of the NITDA Innovation Challenge 1.0, held at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja, Inuwa shared his personal career journey noting that, “I had an opportunity to build a website for the place I served, and that opened doors for me.”

“Before I finished my service, a company offered me a contract worth ₦1.5 million to develop another website. Since then, I have remained committed to creating value through technology,” He said.

He urged the corp members and interns serving in the agency to transform their creative ideas into viable technology startups, assuring them of the agency’s support in turning their innovations into real products and services.

He revealed that NITDA currently hosts over 550 Corp members, many of whom face employment challenges after their service year.

To address this, he said the agency is providing platforms that enable them to acquire digital skills, refine their ideas, and build startups before completing their service year.

“We know it’s not easy to get jobs after NYSC,” he noted. “So we are creating opportunities for you to build your own startups while you are here. You don’t have to wait until after your service year — you can start testing your ideas right now.”

The DG commended the participants for their innovative ideas ranging from smart performance tracking systems to digital branding tools, knowledge management platforms, job placement systems, and certificate verification solutions.

“These are solutions we truly need,” he said, encouraging them to continue exploring new possibilities and building solutions that will define Nigeria’s digital future.

Highlights of the event included the presentation of cash awards to the top six winning teams as follows: Team X (COPA) – 1st Place; Team Sentinel (Smart ID) – 2nd Place; Smart Track Innovators – 3rd Place; Team Trivergent – 4th Place; Team TechLogs (SafeCheck) – 5th Place; Team Big Tech (Digital Brainbox) and Team SRAPture – tied for 6th Place.