The European Union has announced significant new investments to accelerate Nigeria’s digital transformation, pledging an additional 45 million euros for ICT training, fibre-optic expansion and digital public infrastructure as part of a sweeping effort to boost nationwide digital inclusion.

Speaking in Kano at the fifth Project Steering Committee meeting of the Digital Transformation Centre (DTC) Nigeria, the EU’s Head of Section for Green and Digital Economy, Inga Stefanowicz, said the bloc is determined to ensure that digital development reaches every part of the country and not just major cities in Nigeria.

The forum which also launched the Women Venture Studio Innovation Hub, brought together government agencies, academia and innovation players under an initiative funded by the EU, BMZ Germany and the Kingdom of Denmark, and implemented by GIZ Nigeria, in a strategic push to extend digital development efforts to more regions She said: “We do not want this Steering Commit- tee to remain only in Abuja.

That is why we have taken it across the country, from Lagos to Ibadan and now Kano. It is important to recognise the digital transformation happening here in the north alongside progress in other regions of Nigeria.”

Stefanowicz explained that the DTC forms part of a wider EU digital cooperation package valued at 820 million euros, noting that the next phase of support would intensify digital skills training and infrastructure rollout. “It has been three years of project implementation. This was the first step. There is still progress ahead.”