Muhammadu Buhari, former President of Nigeria, is gone, but the digital infrastructure he championed remains.
His death yesterday brings an end to an era that impacted Nigeria’s digital and tech space in ways many could not have imagined when he took office in 2015.
For all the controversies that coloured his time in power, Buhari’s drive for a tech-driven economy cannot be ignored. His legacy is one of ambitious policies, infrastructural growth, but also of censorship and policy contradictions.
Buhari inherited a country where broadband penetration sat at a meagre 6%, and the tech sector contributed just 8.5% to national GDP.
By the time he left office in 2023, broadband penetration had surged to 46%, and the ICT sector accounted for 19.54% of GDP.
The story of how Nigeria’s digital economy grew under Muhammadu Buhari is a story of deliberate policy, hard infrastructure, and undeniable paradox.
Infrastructure: Laying the Digital Rails
At the heart of Buhari’s digital legacy is infrastructure. Undersea cables were expanded, with two new lines boosting bandwidth capacity and reducing internet costs nationwide.
Key upgrades to systems like WACS and MainOne helped coastal regions experience faster connectivity. On land, fibre rollout advanced, though not without challenges.
The National Broadband Plan (2020-2025) aimed for 70% coverage, yet while progress was made, state-level right-of-way charges and power grid constraints slowed nationwide deployment.
Importantly, Nigeria became Africa’s first country with a multi-operator 5G rollout, spreading to six cities. 4G coverage was expanded nationwide.
Over 150 million mobile lines were linked to Nigeria’s national ID database, enabling digital Know-Your-Customer (KYC) processes for banks and fintech startups. This foundational connectivity built the infrastructure backbone for Nigeria’s modern digital economy.
Policy Changes: Turning Nigeria’s Tech Vision into Law
In 2019, Buahri launched the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS 2020-2030), a comprehensive blueprint for repositioning Nigeria’s economy through digital transformation. NDEPS focused on eight pillars, ranging from digital literacy to infrastructure expansion and indigenous content development.
By 2022, Muhammadu Buhari co-signed the Nigeria Startup Act, a landmark legislation co-created with the tech community. The Act offered tax incentives, clearer regulations, and improved funding access for startups, a huge contrast to the previously uncertain regulatory environment.
Executive Order No. 5 (2018) mandated government agencies to prioritise Nigerian tech firms in procurement, pushing local content in security, infrastructure, and digital services.
His 2022 Fiscal Policy Measures also introduced duty reductions for local manufacturers and excise taxes on non-essential imports, encouraging local production and discouraging over-reliance on foreign goods.
In 2023, the Finance Act introduced new taxes targeting carbonated drinks, telecom services, and high-value share disposals, aimed at boosting non-oil revenues, although the industry was disturbed over increased costs of operations.
Local Manufacturing: From Vision to Reality
Local tech production, long a dream, gained new momentum during Buhari’s time. Zinox Technologies, Nigeria’s flagship OEM, supplied over 100,000 smart devices for the 2023 national census, fulfilling Buhari’s executive order on local procurement.
Meanwhile, AfriOne became the country’s first smartphone assembly brand, rolling out POS terminals, tablets, and home appliances from its Lagos facility.
Digital Finance and Inclusion: A Mixed Record
Buhari’s administration pushed the limitations of digital finance with initiatives like eNaira, Africa’s first Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Launched in 2021, it aimed to drive financial inclusion, though uptake was underwhelming. Still, its introduction positioned Nigeria at the forefront of CBDC adoption on the continent.
Venture capital inflows ballooned from $70 million in 2015 to over $1 billion by 2022, birthing startups that grew into unicorns, Flutterwave, OPay, Interswitch, and Andela. Buhari’s administration also claimed to have saved ₦45.7 billion through IT project clearances and digitisation across ministries.
Talent Development vs. Talent Drain
Recognising the need for skilled digital workers, Buhari’s government introduced Digital Nigeria, a free training platform in partnership with IBM, providing courses in AI, blockchain, and cloud computing. Programmes like the Digital Job Creation for Youths (DJCY) trained over 2,000 young Nigerians.
However, these couldn’t fully prevent the Japa wave, Nigeria’s talent drain driven by limited local opportunities and global demand for tech skills.
Censorship and Controls: The Paradox of Digital Growth
Buhari’s digital legacy, however, was not without issues. In 2021, his government banned Twitter for seven months after the platform deleted one of his tweets. This move cost Nigerian businesses millions and signalled growing state control over digital spaces.
That same year, the Central Bank banned crypto transactions, pointing to financial stability crises. Startups struggled to pivot, while millions of Nigerians were forced to rely on riskier peer-to-peer channels.
Earlier, during the #EndSARS protests in 2020, digital tools became a lifeline for protesters, until the government responded by freezing fintech accounts and cracking down on online dissent.
Forex restrictions added another aspect of difficulty for startups, as monthly naira card limits for overseas payments were slashed from $12,500 to just $100, choking access to foreign SaaS tools critical for scaling businesses.
Institutional Reforms: Changing the Bureaucracy
Muhammadu Buhari wasn’t content with building infrastructure alone. He rebranded the Ministry of Communications to include Digital Economy in 2019, formally recognising the sector’s strategic importance. Through the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), over 180 reforms were introduced to ease business operations in Nigeria.
His administration established the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (2022), later elevated to a full Data Protection Commission under President Tinubu, and formalised Nigeria’s National Blockchain Policy (2023) to position the country within the $1.76 trillion global blockchain economy projected by 2030.
The National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics was also launched under Buhari, a forward-looking move to prepare Nigeria for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Buhari’s Digital Legacy: Progress and Pushback
President Buhari leaves behind a digital economy transformed but turbulent. His policies drove connectivity, startup creation, digital finance, and local tech manufacturing. Yet, his administration also clashed with the very freedoms that underpin digital innovation.
His tenure was a paradox with strides and restrictions; of opening doors while building walls. Today, Nigeria reflects on Buhari’s life and his digital legacy stands as both a win for what was achieved and a caution of the complexities of governing a digital nation.
