Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SecDojo, a Cybersecurity training and upskilling company with headquarters in France, to strengthen national resilience against cyber threats through targeted capacity building initiatives.
The signing ceremony took place during GITEX Africa 2025 event in Marrakech, Morocco, with Kashifu Inuwa, the director general of NITDA, and Mr. Younes Benzagmout, chief executive officer of SecDojo, representing both organisations.
This strategic partnership is designed to bolster Nigeria’s cybersecurity landscape through comprehensive capacity-building initiatives.
The collaboration will focus on the establishment of a Cybersecurity Academy, delivery of advanced training and simulation programmes, development of customised curricula and educational resources, and facilitation of research, knowledge sharing, and professional exchange programmes.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Inuwa expressed his enthusiasm about the collaboration, describing it as a key milestone in Nigeria’s journey toward a secure digital future.
“We just signed an MOU with SecDojo, which is a cybersecurity capacity-building provider, and this is one of our efforts to strengthen our national cybersecurity to enhance our cyber resilience,” he noted.
He asserted that as Nigeria continues its digital transformation journey, investing in human capital is paramount, describing people as the technology component of any innovation ecosystem.
Inuwa also noted the growing global demand for cybersecurity professionals and emphasised Nigeria’s potential to fill the talent gap, given its large and youthful population.
“Globally, we have the gap, and in Nigeria, we have a young population that if we harness, well, we can train them and connect them with the global value chain to provide cybersecurity services and also to fill some roles and gaps in the global cybersecurity market,” he averred.
While pushing for digital skills integration into Nigeria’s formal education system, the DG called for deeper collaboration between technology stakeholders and the Federal Ministry of Education to embed digital literacy and cybersecurity training into Nigeria’s formal education system.
He stated that, there is an urgent need to shift from short-term skills acceleration programmes to long-term, systemic integration of digital skills into academic curricula at all levels, from primary to tertiary education.
“For me, this goes beyond NITDA. I see a national opportunity, one that involves the Ministry of Education, to institutionalise digital literacy through formal education,” he said.
“Currently, what NITDA offers are skills acceleration programmes because these critical digital competencies are not taught in schools. But to prepare for the future, we must embed these skills into our national education framework,” he added.
Highlighting successful models such as Cisco’s academic integration, which allows students in over 100 Nigerian universities to earn both degrees and professional certifications simultaneously, he stressed the benefits of a dual-track learning system that equips graduates for immediate relevance in the digital economy.
He noted that while Cisco has led the way, the ecosystem must be open to multiple partners, especially those aligned with Nigeria’s National Digital Literacy Framework, and encouraged tech firms and content providers to collaborate, offering open-source or customized content that can be adopted nationally.
“We don’t want to limit this to a single vendor. The opportunity is open to all. Google has shown interest, and we welcome more partners. There are committees already working with the Ministry, and we’d love to see more stakeholders at the table,” he concluded.
In his remark, Mr Benzagmout, expressed his enthusiasm for the collaboration and reaffirmed the company’s commitment to working closely with Nigerian stakeholders.
He noted that the collaboration aims to bring SecDojo’s innovative training platforms and methodologies to support Nigeria’s cybersecurity professionals while contributing to the development and execution of a comprehensive national cyber capacity-building strategy.
“We sincerely thank NITDA for their trust and partnership and we are excited to begin this journey and look forward to building a successful and impactful collaboration,” he assured.
