Indigenous firms key to Nigeria’s digital future – Remita

The Managing Director of Remita Payment Services Ltd., Mr Deremi Atanda, has called for stronger recognition of indigenous technology capabilities in shaping Nigeria’s digital future.

Atanda made this known in a statement on Thursday following his participation at the National GovTech Policy Roundtable 2026.

He said Nigeria’s private sector had played a critical role in advancing digital governance.

Atanda noted that locally developed solutions had continued to operate at scale across both public and private sectors.

Clarifying perceptions about Remita’s role, Atanda said the company’s engagement with the government represented only a fraction of its broader operations.

“Many assume that our strength lies primarily within government, but that is not entirely accurate. It simply represents one expression of the breadth of what we do.

“We are a wholly privately owned organisation, yet we have found ourselves contributing meaningfully to Nigeria’s growth by leveraging technology as a purely private sector entity,” he said.

Building on this, he noted that Nigeria’s digital transformation journey had been significantly shaped by indigenous innovation, stressing that local firms had consistently delivered critical infrastructure that underpins governance and service delivery.

To illustrate this, Atanda referenced the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System as a defining moment in Nigeria’s GovTech evolution.

He explained that the project, conceived in 2006 and funded by the World Bank through an international bidding process, was won by SystemSpecs, demonstrating the global competitiveness of Nigerian firms.

“At a time when it was opened to global competition, a Nigerian company emerged successful in that process.

“This is a success story that Nigeria itself has not sufficiently told, in spite of the fact that it has, over time, outperformed leading international organisations on that same project,” he said.

He added that the project was executed under fully international procurement standards and denominated in dollars, further reinforcing the capacity of indigenous companies to deliver on complex, large-scale systems.

According to Atanda, such examples show that some of Nigeria’s most critical digital public infrastructure have been locally conceived, developed and sustained over time.

Atanda noted that while Remita was widely recognised for powering the Treasury Single Account, its evolution reflects a platform with a much broader footprint.

He noted that the company provides payments, collections and financial services infrastructure across multiple sectors, supporting efficiency and transparency in both government and private institutions.

Atanda reiterated that Nigeria’s digital future would depend on sustained support for indigenous innovation, stronger private sector leadership and continued investment in scalable technology infrastructure

Also speaking, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Benjamin Kalu, underscored the importance of impact-driven digital transformation.

Kalu said the success of digital governance should be measured not by technology deployment, but by how accessible, responsive and trustworthy government becomes to citizens.

“The measure of digital-first governance will not be found in the servers we procure or the applications we launch, but in whether government is accessible, responsive, trustworthy and just,” he said.