NITDA Inaugurates Sandbox Technical Working Group To Bolster Regulatory Framework For Digital Innovation

By Angeline Mgbele, Bureau Chief, Northern Nigeria

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has intensified efforts to foster a more enabling environment for innovation by inaugurating a Technical Working Group (TWG) aimed at strengthening regulatory collaboration and advancing a coordinated sandbox framework for Nigeria’s digital economy.

This is according to a press statement, accessed by our reporter, e-signed by the Director of Corporate Communications & Media Relations at NITDA, Hajia Hadiza Umar.

Speaking at the inauguration, the Director-General of NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, represented by the Acting Director of Regulation and Compliance, Barrister Emmanuel Edet, emphasised the critical need for stronger cross-agency cooperation to address structural regulatory challenges that often hindered the pace of innovation.

Mallam Abdullahi noted that members of the Technical Working Group were deliberately selected based on their strategic institutional roles and capacity to contribute practical solutions tailored to the evolving realities of Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.

Abdullahi explained that while regulatory agencies had legitimate and clearly defined mandates, the increasing complexity of digital technologies required greater institutional alignment and collaboration to ensure regulatory frameworks support, rather than constrain, innovation.

“As government institutions, our core responsibility is to provide solutions to the challenges faced by Nigerians. The issue is not a lack of commitment, but a structural one. Regulators often operate in silos while implementing their mandates, and in today’s digital environment, that model presents significant limitations,” he said.

The NITDA Director General observed that the rapid expansion of the digital economy continued to outpace conventional regulatory systems, creating gaps that could inadvertently delay or obstruct the deployment of innovative solutions capable of improving livelihoods and driving national development.

To address these challenges, he said the Agency was championing a multi-agency regulatory framework designed to bring regulators together, foster understanding of overlapping mandates, and collectively develop adaptive mechanisms that created room for innovation while maintaining effective oversight.

Central to this strategy, Abdullahi explained, was the adoption of regulatory sandboxes—controlled environments where innovators could test emerging technologies and solutions under the supervision and guidance of relevant regulatory authorities.

“Our guiding principle is that we learn by doing. Through these sandboxes, regulators can contribute to building safe spaces where innovation can be nurtured, tested, and scaled for the benefit of Nigerians,” he added.

He further reassured stakeholders that the initiative was not intended to weaken or override any agency’s statutory powers, but rather to improve coordination and build a more responsive regulatory ecosystem capable of keeping pace with technological advancement.

According to him, stronger inter-agency collaboration was essential to ensuring that Nigeria remained competitive in the global digital economy and fully harnessed innovation as a driver of inclusive economic growth and national prosperity.

Abdullahi expressed optimism that the Technical Working Group would serve as a strategic platform for shaping forward-looking regulatory solutions while advancing NITDA’s broader vision of repositioning the Agency as an ecosystem orchestrator committed to enabling digital transformation and sustainable national development.

Presenting an overview of the National Regulatory Sandbox, the National Coordinator of the Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI), Victoria Fabunmi, said the initiative was designed to provide a structured, legal, and multi-agency framework that enabled innovators to test emerging technologies under regulatory supervision before obtaining full market approval.

According to her, despite rapid advancements across sectors such as Artificial Intelligence, fintech, health technology, and blockchain, innovators continued to face significant challenges due to siloed regulations, fragmented approval processes, and the absence of coordinated mechanisms for testing new technologies.

Fabunmi noted that while Nigeria’s digital economy continued to witness remarkable growth, the lack of harmonised regulatory engagement had often delayed innovation and increased uncertainty for startups and technology-driven enterprises.

Describing the National Regulatory Sandbox as more than just a digital platform, she explained that it was fundamentally a governance and legal framework aimed at creating an enabling environment where innovation can thrive responsibly.

Unlike traditional sandbox models often associated primarily with financial services regulation, Fabunmi said Nigeria’s approach was intentionally sector-agnostic, allowing regulators from multiple sectors—including agriculture, digital health, mobility, clean energy, and digital public infrastructure—to collaborate in supporting innovative solutions.

Under the framework, startups and innovators would be able to engage multiple regulators simultaneously within a controlled testing environment, reducing bureaucratic bottlenecks and significantly shortening time-to-market for emerging solutions.

She added that the sandbox would also generate shared, evidence-based regulatory insights, enabling participating agencies to make informed decisions collectively and develop adaptive policies that supported responsible innovation.

The inauguration of the Technical Working Group marks another significant step in NITDA’s efforts to build a more agile, collaborative, and innovation-friendly regulatory environment—one that aligns with Nigeria’s broader ambition of becoming a leading digital economy in Africa.