A popular ICT firm in sub-Saharan Africa, Global IT, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari on the appointment of Kashifu Abdullahi as the new Director-General/CEO of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
Rasheed Bakare, the Country Director of the firm, gave the commendation in a letter addressed to the president and made available to newsmen.
Bakare, in the letter, applauded the appointment of the 39 year-old Abdullahi, describing him as a “digital guru and industry key player”, with potential to surpass his predecessors’ achievements.
“Abdullahi, for a couple of years, has shown and proven to be a world class professional who will use his wide network to take NITDA to the next level, in line with the president’s vision.
“He will also ensure that the agency is more efficient and effective in its role as the clearing house for all IT projects and infrastructural development in the country.”
Bakare, while congratulating Abdullahi on his appointment, which it described as well-deserved, charged him to leave above board and justify the confidence reposed in him by the president.
The new NITDA boss was born on Feb. 21, 1980 in Hadejia, Jigawa State. He is a graduate of Computer Science from the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT-Sloan), with 15 years experience in IT operations, business transformation and solution architecture in both the private and public sectors.
He attended leadership and management courses at Harvard University, USA, University of Cambridge, UK and IMD Business School in Switzerland.
The new NITDA boss is the first Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) in Nigeria’s public sector and certified project manager as well as solution architect.
He worked at Galaxy Backbone as Network Engineer, IP Network Field Engineer, Senior Network & Lead, IP Operations Team, and Senior Solution Architect & Lead, Technical Solution Design Team from 2004 to 2013.
In 2014, he joined the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as a Technology Architect, where he dedicated his time to developing Technology Architecture Repository that gives total view of the bank’s IT infrastructure and easy decision on new IT investment.
Abdullahi was part of the team that executed software license rationalisation, which has increased cost savings for the bank in license annual subscriptions.
As a technology architect at the apex bank, he produced seven Solution Architectures for critical IT initiatives that helped in achieving cashless policy in Nigeria.
He joined NITDA in 2017 as Technical Assistant to the Director-General/CEO and managed execution of strategy which increased ICT contributions to Nigeria’s GDP by over 13 percent in the second quarter of 2018.
The new NITDA boss also overhauled the agency’s IT clearance process and encouraged shared services among agencies which helped the federal government saved over N16 billion from IT projects.
Abdullahi is a member of both the British Computer Society (BCS) and Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), and he is a recipient of 100 Leading Telecom and ICT Personalities award in Nigeria.
