By Progress Godfrey

ABUJA – The Federal Government has said that a secure digital public infrastructure is critical to curbing fraud, enhancing cybersecurity, improving public service delivery, and accelerating inclusive economic growth.

The Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Engr Abisoye Coker-Odusote stated this at the ITGOV Nigeria 2026 summit organised by Tranter IT and ManageEngine in Abuja on Wednesday. The summit brought together policymakers, tech leaders, cybersecurity experts, and governance professionals to explore how digital public infrastructure can drive economic growth, strengthen national security, and improve public sector efficiency.

According to her, a secure identity ecosystem would support healthcare, education, reduce compliance costs for businesses and help law enforcement agencies tackle identity theft, cybercrime and financial crimes while protecting citizens’ privacy.

The NIMC DG said, “Digital public infrastructure is the foundation on which modern economies are built. Without a viable identity system, governments will continue to struggle to deliver services effectively, financial institutions will face heightened risks, businesses will suffer unnecessary costs, and marginalised citizens may be excluded from the global economy.”

Coker-Odusote added that NIMC is modernising its technology infrastructure to create an interoperable and inclusive identity system that supports secure authentication, electronic signatures and trusted digital services across both the public and private sectors.

The Executive Chairman of Tranter IT, Dr Lare Ayoola, said digital transformation would help governments deliver faster and more efficient services while reducing the cost of governance through automation and better data management.

“The participants today will learn how they can best structure their ecosystems to deliver the kind of services government would like to provide to citizens. Processes that take about three months today can be reduced to one week because information will be collected online,” Ayoola said.

He emphasised that stronger cyber security, identity management and database protection would be needed as more government services move online, adding that digital systems would improve revenue collection, planning, decision making and the ease of doing business.

He added that ManageEngine’s automation, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity solutions could help government agencies reduce paperwork, strengthen data protection and improve public service delivery.

Associate Director of ManageEngine, Solomon Raj, said the annual ITGOV conference has continued to attract growing participation from government institutions, with more ministries and agencies adopting digital solutions to automate operations and reduce reliance on paper processes.

According to him, “There are a lot of ministries and parastatals that have started using our solutions. We are making a very good change in their environment, making certain things paperless, introducing automation and supporting Nigeria’s digitalisation vision.”

Raj said Nigeria was chosen as a strategic market because of its large population, economic size and strong digital potential, noting that greater technology awareness and the replacement of legacy systems remain key to accelerating digital transformation across the public sector.