Nigeria can unlock $110bn annually through e-governance -Experts

By Chinenye Anuforo

Nigeria stands to save and generate part of the over $110 billion that governments worldwide could unlock each year by blocking leakages in public spending and tax collection through digital governance, according to the National Commissioner and CEO of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Dr. Vincent Olatunji.

Speaking at the e-Government Summit in Lagos on Friday, Olatunji argued that e-governance is not just about digitising services, but also about transforming the economy by cutting waste, reducing corruption, and building trust between citizens and the state.

He pointed to local examples such as the Treasury Single Account (TSA), which has saved Nigeria more than ₦10 trillion, the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), which removed over 70,000 ghost workers, and the Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMIS), which plugged ₦126 billion in financial leakages.

“These are not abstract figures. They are real-life results of what happens when you put digital tools at the center of governance. If we scale this up, the impact on our economy will be massive”, Olatunji said.

Other speakers at the summit emphasised that broadband expansion, public trust, and private sector collaboration are critical to unlocking these gains. Lanre Ajayi, Convener of the eGovernment Summit and executive chairman of DigiServe Network Services, said digital reforms would only succeed if both government and businesses worked hand-in-hand to remove bottlenecks and improve service delivery. President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Tony Emoekpere, stressed that broadband is the backbone of e-governance. Without fast and affordable internet, he warned, millions of Nigerians especially in rural areas will remain excluded from digital services.

Similarly, President of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), Adesola Akinsanya, called for a secure, homegrown digital identity ecosystem to strengthen trust and ensure that Nigerians feel confident in adopting online services.