FG, N’Assembly, Judiciary to Adopt ‘Digital First Governance’ Across All Public Institutions

The Federal Government, National Assembly, and Judiciary have adopted a sweeping resolution to implement ‘Digital First Governance’ across all public institutions, mandating that every digital service must cut time, cost, and friction for Nigerians.

The far-reaching resolution was contained in a communiqué co-signed by the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Speaker, Sam Hart mni and the Director for Africa, Govtech Africa Inc., Fortune Toma, an aftermath of the inaugural National GovTech Policy Roundtable recently held recently at the National Assembly Library and Resource Centre, Abuja.

Themed “Digital First Governance: Rethinking How Nigerian Governments Serve, Engage and Deliver”, the Roundtable was co-convened by Govtech Africa Inc., the Office of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the National Assembly Library Trust Fund.

The event brought together a broad cross-section of stakeholders from key government components across the federal executive, legislature, and judiciary, as well as sub-national governments to the private sector and international development partners, reaffirming the Roundtable’s whole-of-government character.

Ensuing discussions were anchored on the recognition that Nigeria’s greatest digital governance challenge is no longer primarily technological but institutional and cultural.

It highlighted that the persistent gap between policy intent and implementation, the duplication of siloed systems, limited interoperability across government institutions, and the absence of enforcement mechanisms that outlast individual administrations remained the primary barriers to transformation.

The Roundtable was convened as a working platform to ask the right questions, challenge existing assumptions, and co-create practical and actionable steps toward a digital-first republic.

Under the new directive, accessibility for persons with disabilities, limited connectivity, and low digital literacy is now “the definition of success” for government platforms.

The Roundtable also declared the National Digital Economy and e-Governance Bill a “national legislative emergency,” urging the National Assembly to pass it swiftly and calling on the President to assent without delay.

Other resolutions reached at the conference included the need for all federal and state officials to immediately dump commercial email services like Google and Microsoft for Galaxy Backbone’s GovMail, stipulating that the National Assembly, starting with the Office of the Deputy Speaker, will lead the transition.

The communique also stated that public digital investments must prioritize Nigerian-built solutions that meet security and interoperability standards.

“The Nigeria Data Exchange (NGDX) will be activated with binding mandates so citizens provide data to government only once. The Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary must each publish time-bound plans to modernize operations. “No arm may champion digital-first governance without first applying that standard to itself. The National Assembly will institutionalize the NASS Eye platform to let citizens track legislative proceedings and executive compliance in real time. A dedicated ICT procurement framework with trained IT officers will replace the current system of treating tech like physical goods”, the Communique stated.

The communique further advocated that a permanent Multi-Stakeholder Digital Governance Council will harmonize policies and track implementation, hinting that progress will be reviewed at the National GovTech Policy Roundtable 2027.

The Roundtable stressed, that the standard “shall not be the policies gazetted or the applications launched, but the experience of the Nigerian citizen in whether government is responsive, accessible, trustworthy, and just.”