By Shuaib S. Agaka

Over half of Nigeria’s government-funded IT tasks—an alarming 56%—have failed to satisfy their meant targets. Based on Kashifu Inuwa, Director-Basic of the Nationwide Info Know-how Growth Company (NITDA), these failures go far past statistical knowledge. They symbolize damaged digital companies, billions of naira in wasted taxpayer funds, and missed alternatives to rework healthcare, schooling, safety, and governance by way of know-how.

From biometric techniques that don’t synchronize, to public-facing platforms deserted shortly after launch, the collapse of those initiatives has turn out to be disturbingly routine throughout Ministries, Departments, and Businesses (MDAs). Whereas a lot public discourse has targeted on blame, NITDA is shifting consideration towards options—reforming how know-how is conceived, carried out, and sustained inside Nigeria’s public sector.

The company’s revised IT Undertaking Clearance Tips sign a daring step in addressing the deep-rooted dysfunction in Nigeria’s digital ecosystem. With help from key accountability establishments, NITDA is rebranding itself not merely as a watchdog, however as a catalyst for lasting reform in public sector digital governance.

The implications of a 56% failure fee are grave. These are usually not trivial tasks; they’re important to delivering companies and fostering public belief. Their collapse stalls progress, undermines confidence in authorities, and drains assets that could possibly be higher used elsewhere. Recognizing the size of this dysfunction, NITDA launched its IT Undertaking Clearance initiative, which has already helped the nation keep away from over ₦300 billion in wasteful and duplicative digital spending.

Regardless of this progress, many MDAs proceed to launch IT tasks with out ample design, integration methods, or alignment with broader nationwide objectives. Distributors routinely promote flashy, off-the-shelf know-how with little contextual relevance, whereas undertrained civil servants approve expensive contracts with minimal scrutiny. The result’s predictable: overpriced options, deserted techniques, and a fragmented digital panorama the place authorities platforms can’t even talk with one another.

On the core of this disaster is a defective mindset—treating know-how as a magic bullet reasonably than a strategic instrument. Based on DG Inuwa, MDAs often rush to undertake the newest applied sciences with no clear understanding of the issues they intention to resolve. In lots of instances, there’s no devoted design section, no give attention to consumer wants, and no plan for a way new techniques will combine with current digital infrastructure.

Even worse, MDAs have operated in silos—every designing and deploying unbiased IT tasks with out central oversight. This siloed strategy has led to rampant duplication: one company develops a payroll system, one other builds an identical one from scratch, each funded by public cash. Missing a typical structure or interoperability requirements, these techniques fail to work collectively, rendering large-scale digital integration nearly not possible.

The absence of licensed professionals, weak monitoring mechanisms, and procurement processes open to abuse solely worsens the state of affairs. The cumulative impact is widespread public frustration, institutional inefficiency, and a path of squandered alternatives.

To interrupt this cycle, NITDA has overhauled its regulatory framework with a renewed give attention to technique earlier than techniques. The revised IT Undertaking Clearance Tips introduce a structured, three-phase strategy to public sector know-how improvement: Answer Design, Implementation, and High quality Assurance.

Within the Answer Design section, MDAs should clearly outline the enterprise want, set measurable targets, and exhibit how the know-how will ship public worth. This consists of conducting danger assessments, stakeholder evaluation, and system structure planning—essential steps that have been beforehand uncared for within the haste to deploy.

The Implementation section ensures that licensed professionals are engaged, that technical work relies on sound ideas, and that interoperability with different authorities techniques is built-in from the beginning.

Lastly, the High quality Assurance section introduces rigorous testing, efficiency validation, and safety checks to make sure techniques are dependable, useful, and sustainable earlier than they go reside.

One of the vital transformative parts of the revised pointers is the insistence on skilled requirements. IT contracts can now not be awarded to corporations with out confirmed technical credentials—a long-overdue correction to a loophole that allowed quite a few digital tasks to fail underneath unqualified contractors. Moreover, the revised coverage mandates that each IT challenge aligns with nationwide digital methods, making certain coherence and synergy throughout authorities initiatives.

As Inuwa aptly famous, “We should cease designing in silos. If techniques don’t work collectively, they fail collectively.”

However past technicalities, NITDA can also be championing a brand new tradition of accountability and intentionality. Fairly than treating know-how as an finish in itself, MDAs are actually required to articulate the worth of every proposed resolution. What problem are we fixing? Who advantages? What does success appear like? These reflective questions are now not elective—they kind the inspiration for challenge approval.

As a substitute of including bureaucratic purple tape, this strategy fosters strategic alignment, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability. It additionally helps MDAs construct inside capability for smarter digital governance, making know-how a companion in coverage supply reasonably than an afterthought.

One other key characteristic of NITDA’s reform agenda is its collaboration with different oversight establishments. Recognizing that systemic change requires shared duty, the company is now working carefully with the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Workplace of the Auditor Basic for the Federation, and Workplace of the Accountant Basic. These partnerships intention to combine oversight, budgeting, and auditing mechanisms, closing the loopholes that beforehand enabled duplication and inefficiency to thrive.

Underneath the management of Kashifu Inuwa, NITDA is demonstrating what it means to maneuver from regulation to reform. The company is now not glad with merely issuing directives—it’s working to essentially change how know-how is deliberate, procured, and delivered within the public sector.

Nevertheless, NITDA can’t do it alone.

For these reforms to succeed, MDAs should embrace the clearance course of as a roadmap to higher outcomes, not as a bureaucratic burden. Distributors should prioritize high quality and relevance over fast wins. And residents should demand that public digital techniques truly serve their wants.

Nigeria’s digital future depends upon our capability to study from previous failures and chart a wiser, extra coordinated path ahead. Fixing damaged IT techniques is not only about saving cash—it’s about restoring belief, enhancing lives, and constructing a authorities that works for everybody.

Supporting NITDA’s reform imaginative and prescient shouldn’t be elective. It’s a nationwide crucial.

Shuaib S. Agaka is a tech journalist writing from the PRNigeria Centre, Kano.