FG, SATH to Develop Tech Innovation Ecosystem for Global Competitiveness

Stories by Emma Okonji The federal government, through the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the SATH Foundation, is collaborating with industry stakeholders to develop technology innovation ecosystem for Nigeria that will form a benchmark for global competitiveness in the technology space. Driven by NITDA, and with a committee already put in place to enhance the initiative, NITDA, in Lagos, presented a pilot report of the committee’s TechOutlook 2026, which covered five key sectors that include: Financial Services, Telecommunications, Commerce & Trade, Government Services and Healthcare. Speaking during the TechOutlook 2026 pilot report presentation in Lagos, the Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, stressed the need for Nigeria to develop its own technology innovation ecosystem that would identify existing technology gaps in the select sectors and provide insights that would redirect government policy, boost technology innovation and attract investors’ interest. “Nigeria needs to develop a globally competitive innovation ecosystem, because we cannot build a globally competitive innovation ecosystem on assumptions, or on data guessing or relying on international estimation, industry reports, and individual successes. Nigeria needs to build ecosystem intelligence, technology intelligence, to drive global competitiveness. Such tech ecosystem will help investors to easily identify opportunities for investment. It will help government to redirect policies. It will help innovators to identify emerging technologies and challenges that need solutions,” Abdullahi said. Chairman, SATH Foundation, Collins Onuegbu, in his welcome address, said the idea behind TechOutlook was to build a national platform where the people shaping Nigeria’s technology future could meet each year, take an honest look at where we are, anticipate what is coming, and agree on the priorities that require us to act together. According to him, TechOutlook is designed in such a way that SATH Foundation will continue as a delivering and managing partner, while NITDA and the industry will collaborate in joint ownership and stewardship through a strategic partnership.