Photo: Iwai-Dialax / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Nigeria’s technology agency is pushing African innovators to turn the continent’s digital talent into durable businesses, with a ₦3 billion investment-mobilisation target for local startups.
A pipeline, not cash already secured
Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, director-general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), made the call in a keynote prepared for Moonshot 2026 in Lagos, held on 28 and 29 October.
DGBN has also reported on Nigerian startups press for investment in AI, food systems and circular economy.
He said Africa must move beyond being principally a market for technology designed elsewhere and become a producer of globally competitive digital products, services and enterprises.
NITDA plans to pursue a ₦3 billion investment pipeline through its forthcoming Builders’ Festival, due to take place within the Digital Nigeria International Conference and Exhibition in Abuja from 10 to 12 November.
The target is intended to bring startups together with investors, corporate organisations and potential customers. Crucially, it is a goal for investment mobilisation rather than money already committed or paid to founders.
From pitch events to viable companies
Abdullahi said the continent has strong technical talent, but founders still face familiar barriers: unreliable infrastructure, limited access to finance, weak routes to market and shortages of mentorship.
For more context, read DGBN’s coverage of Yahaya Bello pledges two-week Kano push for Tinubu’s 2027 campaign.
He called for closer work between government, universities, investors, technology firms and innovation hubs. His argument was that success should be judged by enterprises that survive, create jobs and solve practical problems—not simply by the number of hackathons, startup competitions or funding announcements.
The agency’s stated strategy links talent with opportunities, research with commercialisation, startups with capital and innovations with markets. That approach reflects the wider mandate of Nigeria’s startup policy framework, which aims to build an enabling environment for technology businesses and strengthen the country’s exportable digital capacity.
Why this matters for Black innovation
For African and diaspora communities, the stakes extend beyond the technology sector. Locally built firms can create skilled jobs, retain more value within African economies and develop tools suited to realities that global platforms frequently overlook.
Abdullahi singled out agriculture, health, education, manufacturing and local-language technology as areas where indigenous artificial intelligence capability should grow. That is particularly significant for African languages and public services, where imported systems can fail to reflect local knowledge, speech patterns and needs.
NITDA has recently repeated its position that Nigeria must build digital sovereignty through local talent, research and responsible AI development. The ₦3 billion pipeline will therefore be a test of whether a public call for homegrown innovation can translate into customer contracts and investable companies.
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For founders, the key measure will not be the headline target. It will be how much capital is ultimately deployed, which startups secure commercial partnerships, and whether the resulting businesses can scale beyond Nigeria into African and global markets.