Lagos State is investing in digital infrastructure, innovation funding and technology-driven public services to accelerate Africa’s digital transformation, Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat has said.

Hamzat, who spoke at the fifth edition of The Texcellence, organised by CWG Plc in Lagos yesterday, said Africa’s challenge was no longer a shortage of innovation but the inability to scale successful ideas into sustainable solutions capable of serving millions of people.

“Africa does not have an innovation problem. We have a scaling problem,” he said, arguing that governments must create an enabling environment that allows technology businesses to grow, attract investment and expand across the continent.

He said the effectiveness of government in the digital economy should be measured by its ability to remove barriers to innovation, provide reliable infrastructure and establish predictable policies that encourage private-sector investment.

Using CWG Plc as an example, Hamzat said the company’s growth from a computer warehouse established in Lagos in 1992 into a publicly listed technology firm with subsidiaries in Ghana and Uganda demonstrated the importance of a sufficiently large market and a stable business environment.

He noted that CWG’s technology supports about six in 10 financial institutions in Nigeria, highlighting the role local technology companies could play in building critical economic infrastructure.

According to him, Lagos is seeking to replicate such success across other sectors through investments in connectivity, digital identity, regulatory reforms and innovation financing.

Hamzat said the state had adopted a shared infrastructure model for fibre-optic deployment to prevent operators from repeatedly excavating roads to lay separate cables.

He disclosed that about 3,000 kilometres of fibre infrastructure had been laid, with a further $22 million investment planned towards developing a unified 6,000-kilometre network connected to international submarine cables.

The deputy governor added that more than seven million residents had been enrolled in Lagos State’s resident identity system, while smart cameras installed across major roads were supporting traffic monitoring and public safety.

He said the state was also using technology to make government processes more predictable for businesses and residents.

According to him, Lagos launched an electronic physical planning permit system in April, allowing applications to be processed online and tracked in real time. He said the reform had reduced the number of steps required to process permits from 29 to seven, without increasing statutory fees.

On innovation financing, Hamzat disclosed that the Lagos State Science, Research and Innovation Council had supported 18 researchers and more than 75 start-ups.

He added that the state had recently committed about N2 billion to a funding pool for innovators, while proposing an innovation law that would allocate a fixed proportion of the state budget annually to research, development and risk capital.

The proposed legislation, he said, would make support for innovation more predictable and less dependent on individual government initiatives.

Hamzat also identified institutional weaknesses, poor coordination between government agencies and incompatible digital systems as challenges undermining the effectiveness of technology investments.

He said the state was working to address these gaps, stressing that digital transformation required institutional reforms and clear responsibilities rather than simply introducing new software.

“An enabling state is measured not by what it launches but by what it keeps running,” he said.

The deputy governor urged technology companies to develop solutions tailored to Africa’s economic realities, particularly in agriculture, logistics, healthcare, energy and the informal sector.

He also called for greater investment in local intellectual property, data centres, cybersecurity and technical skills, urging businesses to collaborate with universities to develop homegrown technologies, including artificial intelligence systems capable of understanding African languages.

Hamzat said Lagos wanted to build a stronger technology industry capable of creating thousands of skilled jobs in artificial intelligence, robotics, cybersecurity, blockchain and the Internet of Things.

He called for closer collaboration between government and the private sector, proposing measurable commitments on infrastructure, policy consistency, skills development and technology deployment.

He said the success of the partnership should be assessed by three indicators: the number of citizens benefiting from digital services, the money saved through improved service delivery and the number of jobs created across Africa.

Also speaking at the event, Secretary to the Enugu State Government, Professor Chidiebere Onyia, said digital transformation in the public sector required institutional ownership, reliable records and changes in administrative culture, rather than merely deploying technology.

Using land administration as an example, Onyia said Enugu had introduced a digital system to address delays, conflicting property records and opportunities for unofficial payments. He said the state had established a statutory framework for its geographic information system and set a target of processing land documents within 72 hours.

He added that the state had trained more than 15,000 civil servants to support the reforms, while integrating agencies involved in land administration and adopting cashless payments to improve transparency and accountability. Onyia stressed that governments must retain ownership of public records and data, warning that failure to secure such ownership in technology contracts could lead to costly disruptions when vendors change.

Earlier, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of CWG Plc, Adewale Adeyipo, said Africa must move beyond adopting technology to building and owning the infrastructure and intelligence powering its digital economy.

Adeyipo said African technology companies attracted $4.1 billion in funding in 2025, comprising $2.4 billion in equity and $1.6 billion in debt, with debt accounting for about 41 per cent of the total.

He described the funding composition as evidence that African technology businesses were increasingly being assessed on their commercial performance, receivables and balance sheets rather than solely on their growth potential.

Adeyipo also cited National Bureau of Statistics data showing that Nigeria’s information and communications sector contributed 11.74 per cent to gross domestic product in the second quarter of 2026, growing by 9.62 per cent year-on-year, compared with overall economic growth of 4.43 per cent.

However, he expressed concern that Africa, which accounts for approximately 18 to 19 per cent of the global population, holds only 0.6 per cent of the world’s data centre capacity.

He warned that the continent risked accelerating its digital adoption without developing sufficient local computing infrastructure to support artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies.

Adeyipo called for greater investment in data centres, reliable power, fibre connectivity and digital inclusion, noting that access to mobile broadband alone would not guarantee adoption without affordable devices, relevant content and public trust.

He urged technology companies and governments to move beyond pilot projects to sustainable deployments, arguing that Africa’s digital future would depend on ownership, execution and the ability to turn innovation into lasting economic values.