NITMA Honours Kashifu with 2021 IT Gold Merit Award

The Nigeria Computer Society has honoured Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Director General/CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), with the IT Gold Merit Award at this year’s National Information Technology Merit Awards (NITMA) held at the MUSON Centre, Onikan Lagos.

L-R: Leo Stan Ekeh, chairman, Zinox Group; Dr. Mohammed Agbali, senior manager at NITDA representing DG of NITDA, Dr. Hamzat Obafemi, deputy governor of Lagos State and Prof. Adesina Sodiya, president of NCS during the award presentation at the NITMA awards on Thursday, November 18, 2021 in Lagos.

NITMA is a flagship award of the Nigeria Computer Society aimed at recognising, celebrating, and rewarding outstanding excellence and exceptional contributions of individuals and organisations in the Information Technology field in Nigeria.

The IT Gold Merit Award is in recognition of Kashifu’s exceptional strides in positioning NITDA on the global regulatory and digital economy map and successful implementation of various strategic initiatives that is making positive impacts on Nigerians and the overall digital economy.

The award was received on behalf of the DG by Dr Mohammed Agbali, the Chief Research Officer at NITDA.

Kashifu, a versatile IT professional, strategist and transformation manager with experience spanning the private and public sectors in IT operations has applied himself and excelled in several positions with proven capacity in the past 16 years.

A graduate of Computer Science from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Kashifu is a thoroughbred IT professional and the first Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) in Nigeria’s public sector.

He is also a Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT Sloan – trained strategist and has participated in various Leadership and Management courses in Harvard University, Cambridge University and IMD Business School, Switzerland, among others.

Following professional stints at Galaxy Backbone Limited, the Central Bank of Nigeria, and sterling performance as the Technical Assistant to the then DG, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Kashifu as DG of NITDA in August 2019.

Other categories of awards at NITMA 2021 included IT Personality of the Year; IT Company of the Year; Digital Governor of the Year; Young Innovator Award; and the Youth Innovation Award.