The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has convened a diverse coalition of tech leaders, policymakers, and academics to stress-test a new framework to quantify the true economic impact of Nigeria’s digital transformation.

The initiative officially kicked off at a specialised stakeholder validation workshop, held at the e-Government Training Centre in Abuja. This session served as the final testing ground for the architectural blueprint before it guides a massive, nationwide assessment of the country’s digital landscape.

While Nigeria has made massive leaps in digital payments, broadband access, and tech entrepreneurship, a persistent challenge remains. Up until now, the country has lacked a harmonised national system to accurately measure this growth and trace its exact contribution to the GDP.

“Building a globally competitive digital economy requires more than deploying technology,” noted Director- General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, represented by the Director, Special Duties Unit, Olawumi Oladejo. He stressed that sustainable digital transformation cannot rely on guesswork, making reliable evidence and trusted data absolute necessities.

He noted that the initiative aligns with NITDA’s Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2.0), particularly its commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s technology research ecosystem through data-driven policymaking. He called on stakeholders to actively contribute their expertise to ensure that the framework is technically sound, practically applicable, globally accepted, and aligned with best practices.

Also speaking during the opening ceremony, Chairman of the Technical Steering Committee and Director of Research and Development at NITDA, Dr Saidu Mohammed Kumo, added that while the nation’s digital economy is expanding at an unprecedented pace, the capacity to systematically track its impact on productivity and social inclusion has lagged.

To fix this data gap, NITDA’s Technical Steering Committee collaborated closely with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). They also pulled in expert researchers from all six geopolitical zones to ensure the study reflects regional realities alongside national trends.

Together, this multidisciplinary team developed 81 core indicators. These metrics are designed to evaluate three critical pillars: digital infrastructure and access, digital capabilities and skills, and the overall enabling environment for digital adoption.

Rather than launching blindly nationwide, the framework is being pilot-tested across five strategic sectors. These include financial services, government services, e-commerce, telecommunications, and e-health.

During the opening sessions, representatives from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) praised the initiative. They emphasised that accurate, timely data is the engine driving modern economic policy, and promised continued technical support for the study.

Representing the Federal Ministry of Health, Ezedozie Adaora Ifeyinwa, commended NITDA for recognising the health sector as one of the five pilot sectors in the study. She highlighted the growing role of digital technologies, including electronic health records, telemedicine and data-driven disease surveillance in transforming healthcare delivery, while emphasising the need for consistent measurement of their impact on health outcomes and economic development.

She also stressed the importance of addressing challenges such as fragmented health data, varying levels of digital maturity across healthcare institutions and data sensitivity, while reaffirming the Ministry’s commitment to collaborating with NITDA and other stakeholders to strengthen data sharing and support a more integrated digital health ecosystem.

Following a series of intense technical reviews at the workshop, stakeholders finalised the sector-specific methodologies. With the blueprint officially validated, NITDA is now set to launch the nationwide data collection phase, laying the groundwork for data-driven policies that could attract significant new investment.