The Niger State Government has formally transitioned its Ministry of Communications Technology and Digital Economy into the Niger State Information Technology and Digital Economy Agency (NSITDEA), marking a daring new chapter within the state’s digital transformation.
The transition, backed by the Niger State Information Technology and Digital Economy Agency Law (2025), represents a deliberate and strategic determination by the administration of Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago to maneuver expertise governance out of the constraints of the standard ministerial construction and right into a leaner, quicker, and extra autonomous institutional mannequin constructed for outcomes.
Governor Bago has appointed Hon. Suleiman Isah as the pioneer Director General of the brand new company. Isah beforehand served as the first-ever Commissioner for Communications Technology and Digital Economy in Niger State, a place he was appointed to in August 2023. His reappointment to steer the company he helped conceive is a recognition of the numerous progress recorded underneath his watch and a sign of the administration’s confidence in his imaginative and prescient and capability to ship.
From Ministry to Agency: Why the Change
The determination to switch the ministry with a statutory company was not taken frivolously. It displays a rising recognition throughout Nigeria and the African continent that expertise governance requires a unique sort of institutional DNA — one that may transfer on the pace of innovation, entice and retain technical expertise, forge partnerships with the non-public sector and growth organisations, and execute initiatives with out being slowed down by layers of bureaucratic course of.
Under the NSITDEA Law (2025), the company is established as an unbiased statutory physique ruled by a board and led by a Director General appointed by the Governor for a renewable four-year time period. A devoted funding mechanism drawing on a levy from the state’s internally generated income ensures the company can plan and execute with a level of monetary independence {that a} ministry couldn’t get pleasure from. The company additionally holds regulatory authority over digital service suppliers and ICT operators inside Niger State, in step with federal legislation.
About the Director General
Hon. Suleiman Isah is one in every of Nigeria’s most credentialled expertise directors on the sub-national stage. He holds a Master of Science in Information Security and Digital Forensics from the University of East London and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Information Technology from Igbinedion University, Okada. He can be a Cisco Certified Network Associate, a Certified Ethical Hacker, a RedHat Certified Engineer, and a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants of Nigeria.
Before his appointment as Commissioner, Isah served for practically a decade on the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the place he rose to the positions of Network Security Incident Monitoring Manager and IT Risk and Resource Analyst, overseeing the safety of Nigeria’s nationwide income methods and taxpayer knowledge throughout greater than 100 places of work nationwide. He additionally served as Special Assistant on Technical Matters to the Managing Director of the Upper Niger River Basin Development Authority, and as Special Advisor on Digital Transformation and ICT to the Niger State Internal Revenue Service, the place he launched automation instruments that strengthened income assortment.
As Commissioner, Isah constructed the ministry from scratch — a process he has likened to laying a basis whereas concurrently developing the constructing. In underneath two years, the ministry launched AI-monitored home-based examinations for civil service recruitment, launched the TechSis programme to drive feminine participation within the expertise sector, partnered with the United Nations Development Programme to ascertain a MakerSpace innovation hub on the Abdulsalam Youth Centre in Minna, secured a landmark coverage abolishing fibre optic right-of-way prices throughout the state, initiated the digitalisation of affected person information throughout 23 secondary well being services via a unified hospital card, deployed biometric payroll verification methods that eradicated ghost staff from the state’s payroll, and constructed a unified knowledge governance framework spanning all 25 native authorities areas. In May 2025, he was named amongst Nigeria’s 50 Most Valuable Personalities within the Digital Economy by IT Edge News Africa.
What to Expect from NSITDEA
Under Isah’s management, NSITDEA will serve as the central driver of Niger State’s digital agenda. The company will develop and implement expertise coverage throughout all ministries, departments, and businesses; present technical help to authorities establishments adopting digital instruments; license and regulate digital service suppliers working inside the state; and facilitate the creation of expertise hubs, innovation parks, and incubation centres to help startups and entice non-public funding.
The company will even speed up the supply of e-government platforms that make it simpler for residents to entry public companies with out leaving their communities, and can keep a startup and innovation registry aligned with the Nigeria Startup Act to enhance the convenience of doing enterprise within the expertise sector.
Governor Bago’s administration stays firmly dedicated to reaching 75 % digital literacy throughout Niger State by 2027. NSITDEA would be the engine via which that purpose is pursued — via coaching, infrastructure, partnership, and coverage.
The Governor reaffirmed his administration’s dedication to creating an enabling surroundings for companies, defending digital infrastructure, and guaranteeing that the advantages of the digital economic system attain each neighborhood throughout Niger State’s 25 native authorities areas.
For media enquiries, go to the official NSITDEA website or observe the company’s communications channels for updates on programmes, insurance policies, and initiatives.
