The Chief Govt Officer of the Nigerian {Economic} Summit Group (NESG), Dr. Tayo Aduloju, says current tariff reduction measures by the Federal Authorities have triggered over $2 billion value of digital infrastructure imports into Nigeria.
Dr. Aduloju made the disclosure because the keynote speaker through the 2025 Biennial Lecture in Honour of Alhaji Tijjani M. Borodo, President and Chairman of the Governing Council of the Chartered Institute of Administrators Nigeria (CIDN).
The occasion, themed “Constructing Digital Resilience: Governance, Danger and Compliance,” introduced collectively leaders from the private and non-private sectors to deal with Nigeria’s digital vulnerabilities.
He mentioned the 50% tariff headroom granted by the federal government has unlocked long-stalled investments in telecom gear and different digital capabilities, marking a turning level in Nigeria’s digital economic system.
“As it’s possible you’ll know, the federal government lately offered a 50% tariff headroom for telecom operators,” Aduloju mentioned
“That alone has triggered $2 billion value of importation of apparatus and digital infrastructure capabilities that went on board this 12 months. It would increase the digital infrastructure capability of the nation,” Aduloju mentioned.
He defined that for years, restrictive tariffs had discouraged large-scale investments wanted to scale infrastructure within the telecom sector. However with the coverage shift, operators at the moment are responding with renewed confidence.
Regardless of the numerous influx, Aduloju warned that Nigeria nonetheless lags in vital areas of cybersecurity resilience and coordination between stakeholders.
He cited knowledge displaying that 58% of presidency establishments globally, together with in Nigeria, are below fixed cyberattacks, and described the federal government’s response as sluggish.
“Public sector utilities are dragging their toes. Although we’ve been speaking about sensible grid vitality techniques for 25 years, we’re nonetheless battling adoption,” he mentioned.
Aduloju mentioned Nigeria had developed robust insurance policies for digital governance on paper however continued to fall brief in execution because of restricted technical capability, poor inter-agency cooperation, and implementation gaps in cybercrime legal guidelines.
“We’ve got the legal guidelines, however the problem is in implementation. There are nonetheless regulatory and corruption dangers undermining enforcement,” he mentioned.
He urged the Nationwide Meeting to speed up the passage of e-governance laws, which he mentioned would digitize authorities operations and strengthen nationwide resilience.
He additionally suggested company boards to conduct common cybersecurity audits, strengthen inner controls, and keep away from creating tech silos throughout departments a difficulty he mentioned was chargeable for 40% of system failures in African organisations.
“All it takes is 2 unmanaged laptops to compromise a complete enterprise system,” he warned.
On January 20, 2025, the Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC) permitted a historic 50% tariff adjustment for telecom providers, marking the primary improve since 2013, citing mounting operational prices and the necessity to maintain business viability
Amid the controversy, knowledge utilization skyrocketed demand proved inelastic. In March 2025, Nigerians consumed almost 996 petabytes of cellular knowledge, a surge of 11.5 % from February, and subscriptions grew to 141.5 million energetic traces, pushing teledensity near 80%
