Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, the Director-General/CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), is a transformational expert who possesses a wide range of skills in areas such as policy formulation, administration, growth management, talent development, solutions architecture, resource mobilization, and strategy implementation.
Inuwa is a highly accomplished IT professional with an impressive track record in both the public and private sectors, focusing on IT development, policy formulation, and IT governance. He earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi and has acquired executive certificates from renowned institutions such as Harvard University, the University of Cambridge, the London Business School, and Oxford University in the UK. Abdullahi is also an alumnus of the prestigious IMD Business School in Switzerland and a trained strategist from the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Furthermore, he holds multiple professional certifications in telecommunications, service management, networking, and solution design.
Inuwa, as the first Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) in Nigeria’s public sector, has accumulated nearly two decades of experience in the field of IT, spanning both public and private sectors. He initiated his professional career at Galaxy Backbone Ltd, where he served as a network engineer and later as a senior network and lead solution architect. In 2014, he joined the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as a Technology Architect, where he contributed to the development of the CBN Technology Architecture Repository (TAR) and successfully executed software license rationalization, resulting in significant cost savings for the bank in annual subscription licensing. In 2017, he joined NITDA as the Technical Assistant to the then Director-General, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, and played a substantial role in the growth and development of the agency.
On August 20, 2019, Mr. Inuwa was appointed as the Director-General of NITDA by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR. Since taking on this role, Mr. Inuwa has guided the agency toward creative and diligent efforts to foster the growth of the IT sector in Nigeria.
Under Mr. Inuwa’s leadership, NITDA has achieved several significant milestones in just three years. He has introduced a variety of programs focused on digital transformation, talent development, digital innovation and entrepreneurship, regulatory development, exploration of emerging technologies, and the promotion of indigenous IT content, among other initiatives.