Telecom
NITDA Partners Microsoft on Quantum Leap to Implement Cloud First Strategy
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) under the stewardship of the Director General, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, has announced its commitment to strengthen collaboration with the Microsoft Nigeria in ensuring the implementation of the Cloud First Strategy in government Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
L-R: Mrs Ola Williams, New Country Manager of Microsoft Nigeria and Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) during Microsoft’s courtesy visit to NITDA in Abuja.
Abdullahi disclosed this when he received team of Microsoft Nigeria led by the new Country Manager, Mrs Ola Williams at the Agency’s Corporate Headquarters, Abuja.
The purpose of the visit was to introduce the newly appointed Microsoft boss and to further strengthen the already existing collaboration between the two organizations.
The NITDA DG stated that the agency had recalibrated its activities to align with the new Government aspirations and have therefore crafted new strategies.
“We are committed to aligning with these new government goals by transforming our agency and to achieve this, we need an organization like yours to do that”, he said.
Abdullahi stated that the Developmental regulation is one of the strategic pillars of the Agency’s Strategic Road Map and Action Plan (SRAP) 2021-2024 which will encourage innovations and help service providers as well as end consumers.
He said, “Microsoft has been of great assistance in this regard by supporting development of the Cloud Computing Policy.
Abdullahi further stated that the Agency is pushing for Cloud First Strategy in the government and needs further collaboration from Microsoft with the aim of learning the best practices and domesticate them in the country.
“We have collaborated on the Nigerian Data Protection Regulations but we need to collaborate more in line with the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy”, Abdullahi averred.
The NITDA boss said the Agency has been intensifying efforts on Digital Literacy which is another strategic pillar of its action plan in order to help youths upscale their digital literacy skills and retain their jobs in the trending pandemic era.
He further disclosed that the Agency has trained over 2,400 youths and are currently targeting on training 7,200 people from 11 states basically on Microsoft productivity tools, digital content creation and digital marketing.
Abdullahi mentioned that Digital Transformation, Cyber Security, Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship are strategic pillars in which the Agency has collaborated with Microsoft in using technology to enhance traditional processes, help government get insights into the dark web and encourage local startups respectively.
“Small and Medium Scale Enterprises contribute up to 90% of the workforce and it is very important to use technology create fancy employment for our youths. We have so many initiatives with respect to this and I think you can be a key player”, the DG added.
He added that the Agency would need the collaboration of Microsoft in the areas of its Public Key Infrastructure solution to boost cloud first strategies in government institutions and initiate a collaborative process on the acquisition of Microsoft Digital Certificates.
The NITDA DG earlier congratulated the newly appointed Microsoft Boss for being the first female and homegrown boss of Microsoft, adding that NITDA and Microsoft have come a long way and must continue to trail that same direction in order to achieve their goals and objectives.
“With the emergence of a new country manager, we should look at areas we can work together for the betterment of our country Nigeria”, Abdullahi noted.
In her remark, Mrs Ola Williams thanked NITDA for its support and partnership over the years, while expressing her utmost appreciation to the Director General for the privilege given to them to contribute their quota to the development of Cloud Policy in Nigeria.
“Our visit here is as a result of your demonstration of contributions and impact to our organization and to solicit for more support and partnership to create a digital Nigeria”, she concluded.
Cloud First Strategies which are operational strategies in which infrastructures are being moved to cloud computing platforms like the Amazon web services, Google cloud or Microsoft Azure rather than using physical clusters have been identified to have outstanding benefits in terms of auto-scaling, easy configurability in getting new services online and reliability amongst other benefits.
National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) has announced the launch of an Inter-Agency Innovation Competition and Awards to stimulate creativity and technological advancement among Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government.
NASENI
In a statement issued on Wednesday in Abuja, NASENI said the initiative was designed to harness innovative ideas from public servants that can drive indigenous industrialization, job creation and national progress.
According to the agency, the competition will provide a platform for MDAs to propose solutions in critical sectors such as health, agriculture, education and infrastructure, leveraging science and technology to improve public service delivery and enhance the quality of life for Nigerians.
“The competition seeks to promote collaboration and creativity among MDAs while addressing pressing national challenges through innovation,” the statement said.
NASENI urged interested MDAs to submit their entries through its innovation portal at naseni.gov.ng/innovation.
The agency reiterated its statutory mission “to develop and maintain a dynamic infrastructure to drive Nigeria’s indigenous industrialization, job creation and national progress,” adding that the competition would further strengthen efforts to unlock the nation’s potential through science and technology.
Users of satellite internet service provider Starlink in Nigeria are being required to complete a biometric Know Your Customer (KYC) process as a precondition to continue enjoying their services, according to .biometricupdate.
According to local reports, more than 66,000 Starlink subscribers in the country had a December 31 ultimatum from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to complete the biometric verification or have their connection discontinued.
The process essentially entails linking a Starlkink account with the subscriber’s national digital ID.
The NCC, which is Nigeria’s telecoms industry regulator, is said to have first issued the directive in August last year, setting a three-month deadline which was to elapse on November 19, TechCabal reports.
The body however later extended it to December 31 after consultations with industry stakeholders. The internet account-NIN linkage, the NCC said, is to enhance identity verification and strengthen security within the country’s telecoms space.
Just a few days to the December 31 deadline, Starlink’s Nigeria office sent an email to its subscribers reminding them of the KYC requirement, and warned that all those who fail to comply would be disconnected.
And that once disconnected, reconnection would depend on network capacity in the concerned area.
The service provider said in its email that the process takes less than two minutes and users can complete it by logging in to their account via an app.
One user, quoted by TechCabal, said one needs to upload their selfie biometrics, provide their national identification number (NIN) and then give their consent for the account to be linked to their ID information.
Starlink’s internet service is present in about 155 countries with nine million users, as of 2025. Its growth in Nigeria is said to be rapid, making it the second largest internet service provider in the country, according to The Traffic.
Biometric identification for Starlink subscribers could become a continent-wide trend given that some countries have expressed reservations in opening up their internet space to the company over security concerns.
There’ve been fears that jihadists in countries like Mali and Nigeria may have exploited Starlink terminals to coordinate terror operations, and cybersecurity experts have also warned of risks related to weak regulation, digital sovereignty and data breaches.
The requirement for Starlink internet users to have their accounts linked with the NIN is similar to the SIM-NIN linkage policy which the Nigerian government battled to implement for many years, with many deadline extensions.
In October last year, the NCC, which is was at the forefront of the policy implementation, announced that all active SIM cards across all network providers had complied with the directive which was issued in 2020.
The idea, the federal government argued, was to strengthen security and curb criminality such as kidnappings which are aided and abetted by improperly identified mobile phone numbers.
Mr. Kashifu Inuwa, Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has urged Northern Nigeria to pivot urgently from traditional commerce to an innovation-driven digital economy for sustainable growth.
NITDA
Inuwa issued the call at the Future Map Foundation Roundtable 1.0 (North-West Edition) in Kano, attributing the region’s sluggish digital adoption not to talent deficits but to the lack of deliberate, coordinated strategies.
He stressed deeper collaboration across academia, private sector players, entrepreneurs, and government, positioning the private sector as the primary innovation engine while government supplies robust policies and an enabling ecosystem.
Inuwa advocated for people-focused, locally tailored innovations that tackle regional challenges head-on, enabling global competitiveness by transitioning from mere technology users to creators of homegrown solutions.
The roundtable convened policymakers, tech founders, and ecosystem stakeholders to forge a comprehensive roadmap for North-West digital transformation, yielding firm commitments to bolster regional innovation policies and public-private synergies.
Inuwa’s push dovetails seamlessly with the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which sets an ambitious target of 95 per cent nationwide digital literacy by 2030, fostering inclusive economic empowerment.
Participants hailed the forum as a pivotal step toward unlocking Northern Nigeria’s tech potential, with NITDA poised to lead implementation through strategic interventions and partnerships.
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