The 2026 edition of the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX Nigeria) has commenced in Abuja, with the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, warning that Nigeria must urgently secure sovereignty over its artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem.
Inuwa said the country’s growing reliance on AI made it imperative to develop indigenous capacity across the entire technology value chain to protect Nigeria’s economy, citizens and national security.
Speaking at the opening of GITEX Nigeria 2026, the NITDA boss stressed that AI sovereignty should not be viewed merely from a geopolitical perspective, but as the ability of a nation to exercise digital self-determination.
“We need to look at it end-to-end, the entire technology stack, not just the AI itself,” Inuwa said.
He identified reliable connectivity, data centres and cloud infrastructure as critical components of Nigeria’s drive towards AI sovereignty, arguing that ownership and control of the underlying infrastructure would determine the country’s ability to benefit securely from emerging technologies.
According to him, recent regulatory instruments signed by the Federal Government on cloud and data sovereignty represent significant steps towards attracting data-centre investments and strengthening Nigeria’s digital infrastructure.
Inuwa also called for greater Nigerian ownership of AI technologies, algorithms and data, stressing that robust data sovereignty and governance were necessary to develop AI models capable of effectively addressing the country’s peculiar needs.
He raised concerns over the control of AI systems deployed in critical sectors, including finance, healthcare and education, asking whether such systems would ultimately remain subject to Nigerian laws and regulations.
“If we don’t have control over it, whoever controls that AI can manipulate us, can control everything we do,” he warned.
The NITDA DG said the agency’s efforts under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Nigeria First Policy were focused on strengthening digital, data, cloud and AI sovereignty as key pillars of Nigeria’s technological independence.
He described GITEX Nigeria 2026 as a strategic platform for Nigeria and other African countries to confront the challenges surrounding AI capacity, innovation and sovereignty.
Inuwa said the event should stimulate serious discussions on how Nigeria and the continent could move beyond consuming foreign technologies to developing and controlling technologies that would shape their economic and strategic future.
“GITEX Nigeria 2026 should help us answer: What are we doing as a nation? What are we doing as a continent in terms of building our AI capacity and sovereignty?” he asked.
