USMAN GAMBO ABDULLAHI

dr usman gambo abdullahi joined the services of the national information technology development agency (nitda) in march, 2017 and is the current director, information technology infrastructure solutions. his department coordinates the agency’s intervention projects – responsible for the deployment of it infrastructure across the country. he coordinates the agency’s deployment of digital job creation centres, digital divide bridging centres, digital capacity building centres, community it training centres, computer-based test and skills acquisition centres, it innovation and incubation parks and it innovation hubs. he also coordinates the agency’s capacity building initiatives as well as the provision of ict tools. he was the agency’s pioneer director, e-government development and regulations.
dr abdullahi chairs the information technology (it) projects clearance committee, charged with the responsibility of clearing all it projects of federal public institutions, in line with the agency’s clearing house mandate as well as federal government’s directives. the committee has, from april 2017 to date, cleared it projects worth about eight and a half trillion naira (8.5trn) and saved the federal government about three hundred and five billion naira (3056bn). additionally, the committee has contributed to the agency’s efforts at ensuring the patronage of indigenous ict products and services, in line with presidential executive orders 003 and 005 as well as nitda’s guidelines on nigerian content development in ict.
dr abdullahi also chairs the nitdef scholarship committee, charged with the responsibility of managing the entire scholarship process, from advertisement to award. the nitdef scholarship scheme, considered one of the most transparent scholarship schemes in the country, has awarded scholarships to postgraduate scholars studying computing and it-related courses within and outside the country. he also chairs some of the agency’s partnership committees, both with private and public sector organisations. other committees chaired by the dr abdullahi include the information security management systems steering committee, technology innovation and entrepreneurship support scheme, innovation, research & development grants award committee, and training and capacity development committee.
prior to joining nitda, dr abdullahi served for six years as the pioneer director, accreditation, curriculum and quality, centre for management development (cmd), nigeria’s foremost human capital development agency. while at cmd, he was responsible for, among others, accrediting management consultants and management consulting firms & institutions, creation and maintenance of the national database of accredited management consultants, firms and institutions, coordination of the nationwide inspection of accredited firms and institutions for quality assurance and control purposes, monitoring & evaluating centre-wide projects and programmes, management of centre’s strategic projects such as those of the african capacity building foundation (acbf), united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization (unesco), ford foundation nigeria, and national needs assessment survey for the computation of gross domestic product (nnascgdp). he was also responsible for the centre’s international partnership and collaboration.
dr abdullahi has been in the uk for over twenty years before relocating to nigeria in january, 2012. while in the uk, he served in several capacities including:
• senior lecturer and director, short & professional programme, hampshire business school, farnborough college, university of surrey;
• lecturer, strategic business information technology, university of portsmouth;
• lecturer, computing & information systems, loughborough university;
• director, education, training & consultancy services, smss, london;
• director, international operations, sams engineering services limited; and
• project management consultant, excellus corporation, london.

dr abdullahi has also served as a member of a number of governing boards including maybury school, surrey governors’ association and ashford & st peters’ nhs trust, all in the united kingdom. while in nigeria, served as a computer science lecturer in abubakar tafawa balewa university, bauchi as well as other nigerian universities. he has also served as a consultant for private and public institutions in nigeria.

dr abdulahi holds both bachelor of science and master of science degrees in computer science and from abubakar tafawa balewa university, bauchi - nigeria, and phd in human computer interaction from loughborough university, united kingdom. he is an alumni of london business school (lbs) and also a registered prince2 practitioner, agile project management practitioner, a holder of postgraduate certificate in education and a number of other professional qualifications. he is also a member, nigeria computer society (ncs), computer professionals (registration council) of nigeria (cpn), british computer society (bcs) and association of computing machinery (acm).

dr abdullah’s has published extensively in national and international journals and has facilitated, delivered, and coordinated a number of seminars, workshops and conferences in nigeria, europe, asia and the middle east.