DAWN Commission Director General, Mr. Seye Oyeleye and NITDA Director General Alhaji Kashifu Inuwa Abdullah after signing of the MOU.
The Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) have formalised a five-year partnership that gives the Southwest region structured access to the full breadth of Nigeria’s national digital agenda.
The Memorandum of Understanding, signed yesterday in Abuja and running from 2025 to 2030, covers the six states of Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, and Oyo, and goes beyond digital literacy to encompass NITDA’s entire portfolio of initiatives, from innovation hubs and technology development centres to startup ecosystem support and regulatory frameworks for the digital economy.
At the heart of the agreement is Nigeria’s ambition to equip 100 million citizens with digital skills by 2030 through the Digital Literacy for All initiative. The Southwest, with its population density, concentration of tertiary institutions, and strong human capital base, is positioned as a critical contributor to that national target. DAWN Commission’s Digital Literacy and Startup Act Implementation Plan, developed ahead of the signing, provides the regional framework through which that contribution will be coordinated and measured across all six states.
NITDA Director General Alhaji Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, CCIE, used the occasion to make the case for regional collaboration as Nigeria’s most reliable path to balanced digital development. He pointed to the GDP gap between Lagos and the rest of the Southwest as both a problem and an opportunity. “We cannot develop if one part of us is lagging behind,” he said.
Abdullahi outlined plans to establish digital learning centres and functioning innovation hubs in every state, and described a regional technology development model that would identify and build on each zone’s distinct economic strengths rather than replicating a single template.
He argued that the Southwest need not remain solely a fintech corridor, and that individual states could cultivate their own innovation clusters tied to local industries and challenges.
Abdullahi also credited President Bola Tinubu’s decision to establish regional development commissions across Nigeria as a deliberate shift in how the federal government approaches uneven development. He contrasted the newer commissions with predecessors such as the Niger Delta Development Commission and the North East Development Commission, which were created in response to crises rather than as instruments of proactive planning. “Before, they were reactive,” he said. “Because there were crises, that is why they were created, to solve crises.” In his view, the current administration’s approach represented a more mature model of governance. DAWN Commission, he noted, exemplified the bottom-up dimension of that model, working from community and regional priorities upward while federal agencies push downward from Abuja.
DAWN Commission Director General, Mr. Seye Oyeleye positioned the agreement as a deliberate act of regional preparation. He committed to ensuring that NITDA’s frameworks are not just adopted in the Southwest but implemented and monitored, and that federal digital infrastructure in the region is fully used.
“NITDA will get value from this MoU,” Oyeleye said. “The credibility of regional coordination bodies like the DAWN Commission rests on what we produce, not merely on what we sign.”
The partnership places DAWN Commission as the coordinating layer between NITDA’s national programmes and the six state governments, giving the region both a direct channel to federal digital policy and a mechanism for domesticating those policies at state level. Both organisations have agreed to determine the governance structure for implementation.
Source: Original Article
