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Africa needs a common digital trust framework to enable secure identity verification, electronic signatures and online transactions across national borders, Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Dr Abisoye Coker-Odusote, has said.
Coker-Odusote made the call at GITEX Nigeria 2026 in Lagos, where she argued that Africa’s expanding digital economy will remain exposed to security and fraud risks unless citizens, businesses and governments can reliably verify the identities and credentials of entities they interact with online.
She said digital trust must become a core component of Africa’s digital infrastructure as countries expand digital public services and pursue greater cross-border trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Digital connectivity must be matched with trust
According to Coker-Odusote, connectivity alone cannot guarantee secure and efficient digital interactions.
She said every online transaction raises a fundamental question about whether the parties involved can establish and verify trust.
“Every digital interaction engages a very important fundamental question. Can I trust the entity on the other side?”
She said the challenge cuts across government services, customer verification, digital contracts and other online interactions.
The need for trusted digital infrastructure becomes more significant as African businesses increasingly operate across jurisdictions. Companies will require reliable systems for signing documents, verifying credentials and authenticating payments without having to navigate disconnected identity and trust systems in every country.
“Connection without trust breeds vulnerabilities. Friction rises, transactions take longer, costs rise, and fraud risk multiplies.”
Nigeria strengthens digital identity architecture
Coker-Odusote said Nigeria has begun establishing the legal foundation for a trusted national digital identity ecosystem.
She pointed to the National Identity Management Act 2026, which designates NIMC as a root certificate authority for Nigeria’s national public key infrastructure and digital public infrastructure.
According to her, the development gives digital identity a broader role in civic and economic participation while supporting the Federal Government’s ambition to build a $1 trillion economy.
Public key infrastructure (PKI) can provide the cryptographic mechanisms required to authenticate users and electronically sign transactions, creating greater assurance around the identity of parties participating in digital interactions.
States urged to align digital systems
The NIMC chief also called on state governments to participate fully in Nigeria’s emerging national trust architecture rather than build isolated systems that cannot communicate with one another.
She clarified that interoperability does not require every state to operate identical platforms. Instead, systems developed by different levels of government should be capable of recognising and validating credentials issued within the broader national digital infrastructure.
“The humanitarian does not require every state government to form an identical system; rather, it demands our distinct systems understand and validate one another.”
She called for common certificate policies and greater alignment across legal, privacy and regulatory frameworks to support interoperability.
Coker-Odusote said PKI would provide the technical foundation for secure authentication and electronic signatures while establishing accountability for digital transactions.
“The PPI provides the cryptographic authentication and electronic signatures necessary. It provides the legal assurance and accountability in the digital realm that we have documented in the fiscal world.”
Digital government requires more than digitising paper processes
The NIMC boss said Nigeria’s digital transformation must move beyond simply transferring existing paper-based processes to online platforms.
She pointed to the country’s transition towards fully digital public services, including social intervention programmes, health platforms and systems capable of supporting borderless government services.
However, she stressed that technology infrastructure must be accompanied by the human capacity required to build, operate and secure those systems.
“Yet, technology without human capacity is non-conservation.”
She called on public institutions and universities to develop specialised expertise in areas including cryptography, cybersecurity, resilient infrastructure and digital policy.
According to Coker-Odusote, Africa must develop the intellectual capacity required to design and secure its own digital infrastructure rather than remain dependent on external expertise.
“We cannot outsource the intellectual foundation of our digital sovereignty.”
AI and quantum computing create new security challenges
The need to strengthen digital trust, she said, will become even more important as emerging technologies reshape the digital environment.
Coker-Odusote warned that advances in quantum computing could eventually challenge some cryptographic technologies currently used to secure digital information.
She therefore urged governments and institutions to develop adaptable infrastructure capable of responding to emerging cybersecurity threats rather than designing systems solely around present-day requirements.
“Looking ahead, we must also prepare for the next future as artificial intelligence transforms our systems and quantum computing approaches challenge traditional cryptography.”
The warning reinforces the importance of long-term cybersecurity planning, resilient digital infrastructure and continued investment in cryptographic research and expertise.
Africa urged to build shared digital trust standards
Coker-Odusote acknowledged that African countries face different regulatory frameworks, technical capabilities and resource constraints as they pursue greater digital integration.
However, she argued that these differences should not prevent countries from collaborating on shared standards and solutions.
“We possess the talent, the ambition, the market, and the vision.”
She urged governments to treat digital trust as a shared continental responsibility rather than a competition among individual countries.
This, she said, should include knowledge-sharing, cross-border digital use cases and continental capacity-building initiatives that allow countries to benefit from solutions and expertise developed elsewhere.
“Let us move today from aspirations to action.”
She further called for the establishment of an African Digital Trust framework supported by common standards and a community of practice through which countries can share solutions to challenges already addressed elsewhere on the continent.
“Let us ensure that we establish an African Digital Trust framework. We launch robust continental capacity building programs and advance cross-border use cases at standards to reflect our current realities and build a vibrant community of practice where no nation struggles with a problem another has already solved.”
Digital identity at the centre of Nigeria’s transformation
For NIMC, the proposed framework places digital identity at the heart of Nigeria’s digital transformation.
The commission’s position is that identity verification, secure authentication and electronic signatures need to operate as interconnected components if digital government and cross-border commerce are to scale securely.
As Africa’s digital economy expands, the ability to establish trust between citizens, businesses and governments across jurisdictions will become increasingly important.
Coker-Odusote said Nigeria has an opportunity to contribute to building that continental infrastructure.
The immediate challenge, she said, is to translate the legal and technical foundations already being developed into interoperable systems capable of earning the confidence of citizens, businesses and governments across Africa.
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