The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, has explained why his team urged the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to rebase the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.
Inuwa, who delivered the keynote address at the 3rd Annual Economic Confidential Lecture & PRNigeria Book Presentation in Abuja, explained that the rebasing exercise is long overdue. He said Nigeria must begin to capture the full weight of its digital economy, which, according to him, cuts across agriculture, healthcare, finance, education, and even media.
“There is no such thing as a digital economy standing on its own. Digital is the power engine behind everything else. If you remove IT from finance today, growth will decline. If you remove IT from journalism, it will reduce. Therefore, we need to rebase, because the digital economy is about using technology to empower economic activities,” Inuwa told the gathering.
Why Rebasing Matters
Nigeria last rebased its GDP data in 2014, shifting the base year to 2010. That decision expanded the economy by nearly 90 percent overnight, capturing previously overlooked sectors such as film, telecoms, and online services. A similar exercise was carried out by the NBS earlier this year, this time pegging 2019 as the new base year—a period it described as one of “relative economic stability” before the shocks of the pandemic, oil price crashes, and inflationary waves.
Inuwa’s call is rooted in the view that without rebasing the ICT sector specifically, Nigeria risks underestimating one of its fastest-growing economic engines. He insisted that digital technology should no longer be treated as a side contributor but as an embedded driver of national productivity.
“Finance cannot survive without IT. Healthcare is going digital. Agriculture today relies on precision tools. Rebasing will help us measure this reality,” he said.
The Special Adviser to the President on Economy, Dr. Tope Fasuwa, represented by Aremu Olayinka Elijah, echoed this sentiment, adding that rebasing will help Nigeria reposition its economy for the future.
“We are shifting from traditional models to a tech-driven future,” he said, stressing that the Tinubu administration is determined to recalibrate the economy in line with global trends.
The Numbers Behind the Push
The urgency is underscored by recent data. According to the NBS, the ICT sector recorded a remarkable 31.63 percent year-on-year growth in nominal terms in Q1 2025. This was a dramatic jump compared to just 3.40 percent growth in the same quarter of 2024. The sector’s share of nominal GDP also climbed to 10.29 percent in the first quarter of 2025, up from 9.25 percent a year earlier.
Those figures confirm ICT’s rising importance as a growth engine. Yet experts argue that because GDP accounting methods often lag behind reality, Nigeria may still be undervaluing the sector’s contribution.
Backstory: Digital Transformation as a National Strategy
Nigeria’s digital economy push began gaining momentum under former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, who championed the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS 2020–2030). The policy envisioned ICT as the backbone of Nigeria’s growth trajectory, aiming to make the sector contribute at least 45 percent to GDP by 2030.
Since then, the sector has expanded beyond traditional telecoms into fintech, agritech, healthtech, and edtech. Startups like Flutterwave, Interswitch, and Andela have attracted global attention, while mobile money has deepened financial inclusion. Yet, official data has often struggled to keep pace with this reality, fueling calls like Inuwa’s for rebasing.
Economists say the exercise could reshape fiscal planning, foreign investment decisions, and even Nigeria’s borrowing capacity, just as the 2014 rebasing elevated the country to Africa’s largest economy at the time.
Currently, Inuwa and other advocates believe the rebasing of ICT GDP is not just a statistical update but a political and economic statement—that Nigeria is ready to embrace a digital-first economy where technology is no longer peripheral but central to its national prosperity.
