Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has urged government regulators to strengthen cooperation as work continues on a proposed National Regulatory Sandbox designed to support the testing of innovative technology products under regulatory supervision.
Director-General Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi made the call through Victoria Fabunmi, National Coordinator of the Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI), at a governance and implementation planning workshop in Abuja. NITDA published its account of the meeting on August 10, 2026.
The proposed sandbox is intended to give technology businesses a coordinated way to engage with relevant regulators when developing products that cross different sectors. The initiative seeks to reduce regulatory fragmentation while preserving the responsibilities of individual government agencies.
ONDI has conducted stakeholder consultations, mapped Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem and assessed the regulatory environment as part of preparations for the programme. The work has produced a draft governance and implementation framework, which participants at the Abuja workshop were asked to review and refine.
Ojonoka Yusufu, an implementing partner at Druve, said the workshop was intended to build agreement on the proposed operating model, identify gaps and establish the next steps. She noted that the model had not yet been finalised.
The workshop followed NITDA’s inauguration of a Technical Working Group for the National Regulatory Sandbox in May 2026. The group was established to support the framework’s development and implementation, with participation from organisations including the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited and Nigeria Postal Service, according to Voice of Nigeria’s report on the inauguration.
The initiative sits alongside existing sector-specific regulatory programmes. Section 35 of the Nigeria Startup Act 2022 provides for labelled startups to apply through a fast-track process to participate in sandbox programmes operated by regulators, including the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Securities and Exchange Commission, subject to the relevant eligibility and documentation requirements.
NITDA’s August workshop focused on reviewing the draft framework, incorporating stakeholder recommendations and determining the steps required to move the proposed national programme towards implementation.
