News
One Year at NITDA; Kashifu as a Vindication of Youth Excellence in Governance
By Hashim Suleiman,
Let me refer to my September 16, 2019 article tagged ‘Pantami, Kashifu and the beauty of vision” where I had identified Kashifu Inuwa as an individual who had understood clearly the vision of Dr Isa Ali Pantami and had equally chosen to fly with it to fruition. It is also a practical knowledge that people could actually be good carriers of vision and supportive but may not make good leaders, however, Mr Kashifu has today proven to be good in both fronts having stayed a year in office as the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
What Kashifu has showcased from transition to becoming DG till today sits very well with our expectation at #30PercentOrNothing because while were asking for a 30% affirmative action for the youth, we were also very clear as to the sort of youth that should be brought on board if the expected youth excellence and energy were to manifest, we therefore thank Kashifu for vindicating our message which was borne out of critical research.
I was pained the other day when I was having a conversation with an elder brother and I accused his age group for failing to provide mentorship to us and thereby leading to a scarcity of critical youths who can measure up to the leadership gaps that are being created on a daily. He responded to me by mentioning certain youths who have held leadership positions in recent past and have not done well enough to satisfy the expectations of a youth. I had to explain to him how the recruitment process mattered a lot, it never meant that simply appointing a youth was synonymous to performance but rather the careful selection and appointment of youths who have had personal history of zeal, vision and hunger for success. In this area again, Mr Kashifu has measured up and has in fact provided a template for such kinds of selection going forward in order that the big deficit being created in leadership in Nigeria and Africa can be bridged.
Remember how he was a key player in the piloting of the Dr Isa Pantami’s digital journey in 2017 and there couldn’t have been a better way of consolidating such efforts after the ascendance of Dr Pantami to Minister ship than the eventual appointment of Kashifu as the substantive DG of NITDA which in my opinion is the most critical Agency in the Digital Economy campaign. Because the selection and appointment was right, the performance in one year has also matched the expectation.
From a year after Dr Pantami became the DG of NITDA, commissioning of various completed projects started and they have continued till today and we can lately see how all the other parastatals under the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy are working to outdo each other in terms of delivery of projects to be commissioned by the Hon. Minister. Little wonder why during the commissioning of the 11 Digital Economy projects by Dr Pantami on 11th August, 2020, the Chairman of the Projects Commissioning Committee Mr Ayuba Shuaibu had while presenting the welcome address described Mr Kashifu as a progressive per excellence and finally referred to him as ‘Mr Progress’. This is an indication that the good things people do resonates in the minds of fair and discerning individuals.
So far, I have not gone into the crux of Mr Progress’s achievements in one year. In the beginning from his first speech to the personnel of the Agency where he appeared in a deep blue suit which was well sewn to fit and matching shoes to present a man well dressed and ready for digitization. The speech also matched dressing by declaring his wish to first turn the edifice into a smart one that was expected of an ICT Agency. Talk is cheap they say but the way to understand a serious leader is he who walks the talk and NITDA is today a smart office that could be presented to anyone as being Nigeria’s ICT regulator talk less of the improved zeal and corporate appearance of the personnel themselves. The Nigerian parlance will tell you the seriousness of an individual is in the ‘packaging’.
Basically, NITDA has become an Agency that represents a sector which it regulates; there has been introduction of dress code to ensure appearances are in consonance with the building and the ICT sector in general. The commissioning of the rejuvenated smart office structure which was performed by the Honorable Minister Pantami last Monday was well publicized and it was amongst the series of projects that the Hon Minister has been commissioning week in week out.
Further to this, the man has enhanced the Cybersecurity infrastructure through the commissioning of the new CERRT office which is more equipped to track cyber threats to the nation. Little wonder why NITDA kept alerting Nigerians on various threats and scams that were prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period.
Furthermore, the DG had taken special interest in educating Nigerians about the opportunities the pandemic had presented. He highlighted so much how the new normal was an opportunity for the ICT sector to think outside the box and harness the opportunities to replace the vacuum created with technological tendencies. Such awareness coming from a regulator has permeated the public and has since manifested and the increased utilization of technology for activities is evidently on the increase.
Unfortunately, this space will not be enough to enumerate the ample strides that the young professional has exhibited but the one year milestone was enough for us to see an individual who looked the part regarding the ideal expectation of young people in governance. It also behooves on us to echo such to a public that is in deficit of young leadership that was capable of managing the polity following the exit of the elder statesmen.
We shall continue to be on the lookout for young appointees who have chosen to distinguish themselves by delivering those qualities which are expected of young people especially as relates to performance and shift away from the norm but on this occasion give it up for Mr Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi for admitting himself into the Leadership Hall of Fame with his stellar performances in a one year milestone that embodies many more to come for benefit of nation.
God Bless Nigeria!
Enhancing Financial Inclusion and Advancement (EFInA) has selected three fellows for its inaugural EFInA Research Fellowship Programme, an eight-month initiative aimed at strengthening evidence on how financial inclusion policies, products, and services translate into real improvements in people’s lives and livelihoods.
The Fellowship marks a strategic shift in Nigeria’s financial inclusion agenda—from a longstanding focus on access and uptake to a deeper examination of impact and outcomes, including financial health, household resilience, livelihood sustainability, and women’s economic empowerment.
While Nigeria has recorded steady gains in expanding access to formal financial services, EFInA said questions remain about whether this access is delivering tangible benefits for households, small businesses, and underserved populations.
Launched under the theme “Evaluating the Impact of Financial Services on the Lives and Livelihoods of Nigerians,” the programme is designed to support applied, policy-relevant research examining how financial services function in practice across formal, informal, and digital channels, and the conditions under which they generate meaningful economic and social outcomes.
Speaking at the launch, Foyinsolami Akinjayeju, EFInA’s chief executive officer, said Nigeria’s financial inclusion journey has reached a critical inflection point.
“Financial inclusion must deliver real outcomes—better financial health, resilience, livelihoods, and women’s economic empowerment—not just access,” she said. “The EFInA Research Fellowship will generate rigorous, Nigeria-specific evidence on what truly works, what needs to change, and what can be expanded to deliver outcomes at scale.”
She added that the programme is deliberately structured to bridge the persistent gap between research and decision-making in the financial sector.
“By examining how policies, programmes, and financial products work in practice, the fellowship will produce insights that directly inform better policy choices and product design,” Akinjayeju said.
Each Fellow will receive a N4 million research grant to support fieldwork, travel, and research tools, alongside structured monthly mentorship from senior researchers, policymakers, and industry professionals. Fellows will also gain access to EFInA’s data assets, including its Access to Finance (A2F) survey reports, one of Nigeria’s most comprehensive demand-side datasets on financial inclusion.
Beyond funding, the programme places strong emphasis on research quality, relevance, and uptake. Fellows will participate in monthly capacity-building workshops covering research design, impact evaluation, gender-responsive analysis, and policy engagement. These sessions will be delivered in collaboration with institutions including Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), J-PAL, Lagos Business School, the Central Bank of Nigeria, and international development partners.
According to Oluwatomi Eromosele, EFInA’s research lead, the fellowship responds to a long-standing evidence gap in Nigeria’s financial inclusion ecosystem.
“Access alone is no longer sufficient,” she said. “The critical question is whether financial inclusion is translating into better financial health, greater resilience to shocks, improved livelihoods, and meaningful economic opportunities for women and underserved groups.”
She noted that EFInA is prioritising research that is both credible and usable. “We are investing in rigorous, Nigeria-specific evidence and translating findings into practical, decision-oriented outputs that directly inform policy, regulation, and product design,” Eromosele said.
The Fellows will explore research questions across priority themes, including financial health and household resilience amid economic and climate shocks; the role of financial tools in supporting MSME growth and informal livelihoods; women’s economic empowerment through digital and group-based savings mechanisms; and trust, service experience, and satisfaction across financial channels.
The 2025 EFInA Research Fellows are Sarah Edewor, an agricultural economist and development researcher; Abdulmumin Usman, a policy and political economy researcher; and Abdullahi Ibrahim, a measurement, evaluation, research, and learning practitioner.
A core objective of the Fellowship is to reduce Nigeria’s reliance on financial inclusion evidence drawn from other developing contexts such as India and Bangladesh, which EFInA says do not fully reflect Nigeria’s institutional, cultural, and market realities. By generating locally grounded evidence, the organisation aims to equip policymakers, regulators, financial service providers, and development partners with insights tailored to Nigeria’s context.
Fellows will present interim findings during the programme and showcase their final research outputs at EFInA’s Annual Research Symposium in May 2026. Final outputs will include peer-reviewed research papers, policy briefs, and practitioner-focused knowledge products disseminated to key stakeholders.
The EFInA Research Fellowship aligns with Nigeria’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) 2024–2027, which places renewed emphasis on trust, innovation, consumer outcomes, and inclusive growth, and reflects EFInA’s broader mandate to strengthen evidence and support decision-making across Nigeria’s financial ecosystem.
United States President Donald Trump has said he made no mistake for a video briefly shared on his official Truth Social account that depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.
Former President Barack Obama
Speaking late Friday to reporters accompanying him aboard Air Force One, Trump insisted he made no mistake by sharing the video and does not need to apologise.
“I didn’t make a mistake,” he said.
Trump explained that he did not watch the entire clip before it was posted.
“I didn’t see the whole thing. I looked at the first part, and it was really about voter fraud in the machines, how crooked it is, how disgusting it is.
“Then I gave it to the people. Generally, they look at the whole thing. But I guess somebody didn’t,” he said.
When asked directly whether he condemned the video’s content, Trump replied, “Of course I do.”
The video, which was posted late Thursday, pushed a conspiracy theory about voting machines used during the 2020 election and included a racist depiction of the Obamas.
It remained on Trump’s Truth Social account for about 12 hours before being deleted on Friday morning, following widespread bipartisan calls for its removal.
The White House initially defended the post in an emailed statement to reporters on Friday morning by Karoline Leavitt, Press Secretary,.
She said, “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King.”
Leavitt added, “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
Hours after the statement was issued, the video was removed from Trump’s official Truth Social account.
Robert Orya, former managing director, Nigerian Export-Import Bank, (NEXIM), has been sentenced to a cumulative 490 years’ imprisonment over a N2.4 billion fraud, following his conviction by a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Abuja.
The conviction was secured by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Justice F. E. Messiri sentenced Orya to 10 years’ imprisonment on each of the 49 counts brought against him, with the sentences running cumulatively.
Orya, who headed NEXIM Bank between 2011 and 2016, was prosecuted by Samuel Ugwuegbulam, EFCC counsel.
The anti-graft agency accused him of fraudulently diverting funds belonging to the bank—charges the court held were proven beyond reasonable doubt.
Delivering judgment, Justice Messiri ruled that the prosecution successfully established its case, finding the former bank chief guilty on all 49 counts of fraud.
The conviction has been widely linked to the renewed momentum within the EFCC under Mr. Ola Olukoyede, its Chairman, whose leadership has seen a reinvigoration of the agency’s resolve to pursue high-profile corruption cases to their logical conclusion.
Since assuming office, Olukoyede has repeatedly vowed that no individual, regardless of status or past influence, would be shielded from accountability.
Under his stewardship, the EFCC has intensified the prosecution of complex financial crimes, particularly cases involving public institutions and large-scale diversion of funds.
Observers say the sentencing of a former chief executive of a government-owned bank underscores the EFCC’s determination to restore public confidence in the anti-corruption fight and sends a strong signal that financial misconduct will attract severe consequences.
The judgment is regarded as one of the most significant convictions secured against a former banking chief in recent years, reinforcing the agency’s resolve to clamp down on economic crimes within Nigeria’s financial sector.
During his tenure at NEXIM Bank, Orya was initially credited with efforts to reposition the institution to support non-oil exports and improve its financial standing after earlier setbacks.
However, his administration later became enmeshed in controversies, including allegations of loan disbursement irregularities and procedural abuses.
The case, which culminated in Thursday’s judgment, centred on findings that Orya diverted public funds estimated at N2.4 billion—offences that ultimately led to his conviction and lengthy prison sentence.
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