The Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, has held a strategic engagement with TrustSTAMP, a NASDAQ-listed global technology company specialising in privacy, digital identity and trust services, to explore possible collaboration within Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.
During the meeting, representatives of TrustSTAMP, including Senior Advisor Jean-Claude Gallea, Vice President Jonathan Pasha, and other associates, presented the company’s solutions and approach. They emphasised the firm’s adaptive, partnership-oriented model and its existing footprint in Nigeria through collaboration with a major telecommunications provider on SIM swap prevention and fraud detection.
The company highlighted its core biometric tokenisation technology, describing it as a one-way, privacy-preserving transformation that allows secure and verifiable identity authentication without storing raw biometric data. According to the representatives, the system creates “a robust trust layer resistant to fraud, duplication, and future quantum threats,” while also functioning effectively in offline and low-spec device environments.
TrustSTAMP further outlined several use cases for its technology, including digital identity verification, zero-knowledge proofs, tokenisation of real-world assets such as minerals and property, fraud reduction, and inclusion of participants in the informal economy. The firm noted that its solutions have been deployed with Mastercard’s Community Pass, major U.S. banks, and the governments of the United States and Mexico, and that it complies with GDPR, SOC 2, and global data ethics standards.
Inuwa welcomed the presentation, stating that it aligns with NITDA’s cybersecurity and digital trust pillar. He, however, sought clarification on TrustSTAMP’s business model, whether the solution is open or proprietary, its relationship with national digital identity systems managed by NIMC, and how it can support private-sector-led market creation without encouraging market dominance.
Both parties agreed to continue with further technical discussions involving NITDA specialists, while NITDA reaffirmed its commitment to providing an enabling policy environment for secure, investment-friendly digital infrastructure rather than endorsing specific vendors.
The meeting reflects Nigeria’s openness to strategic private-sector partnerships aimed at strengthening digital trust, advancing financial inclusion, and unlocking new revenue opportunities for citizens.
