By Saminu Ibrahim
The Federal Government has unveiled plans to position Nigeria as West Africa’s leading cloud computing hub, as it seeks to attract global technology giants and local infrastructure developers to expand the country’s digital infrastructure.
The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, disclosed this while speaking at a workshop on “Nigeria’s Digital Infrastructure Opportunity” held during ITW Data Cloud Africa 2026.
Inuwa said the government was working to move Nigeria from being largely dependent on offshore digital services to developing a robust, sovereign cloud ecosystem capable of serving more than 230 million Nigerians and the wider African market.
According to him, the strategy is designed to address the gap between Nigeria’s growing demand for computing capacity and its limited domestic infrastructure, noting that local data capacity is already operating at nearly 90 per cent utilisation.
He said the situation had forced businesses and government institutions to rely heavily on offshore computing resources, resulting in significant capital flowing out of the country.
To reverse the trend, the NITDA boss said the government was leveraging its purchasing power under the newly institutionalised “Cloud-First Policy” to consolidate public sector technology spending and create predictable demand for private cloud infrastructure.
Inuwa disclosed that between 2023 and mid-2026, about 326 federal ministries, departments and agencies spent N3.89 trillion, equivalent to approximately $2.9 billion, on technology investments.
He added that government technology demand alone generated nearly $1 billion annually, saying the administration planned to redirect a significant portion of the spending towards cloud infrastructure and shared digital architecture rather than fragmented, agency-specific data centres.
He said, “To ensure investor confidence, NITDA is replacing fragmented, unpredictable oversight with a unified regulatory approach.”
The NITDA DG explained that the agency was establishing a single-interface portal to streamline compliance requirements across multiple government agencies, thereby reducing regulatory bottlenecks for local and international investors.
He said the framework would also allow sector regulators, including the Central Bank of Nigeria, to adopt shared baseline requirements, making it easier for financial institutions and other regulated businesses to migrate critical data to local cloud platforms without facing multiple and overlapping approvals.
According to him, the approach is intended to create a competitive market rather than generate additional regulatory revenue, with emphasis on healthy competition and international interoperability.
Highlighting Nigeria’s digital growth potential, Inuwa said broadband penetration had risen by nearly 10 percentage points to above 56 per cent, while the country currently had about 192 million mobile subscribers and 157 million internet users.
He added that studies had shown that every dollar invested in Nigeria’s digital infrastructure could generate about eight dollars in wider economic returns.
The NITDA boss further disclosed that Nigeria’s cloud computing market was projected to grow from $376 million in 2026 to more than $783 million by 2031.
Beyond the Nigerian market, he said the government was targeting opportunities across West and Central Africa, leveraging the country’s geographical position as a major transit hub for landlocked countries in the region.
Inuwa said the National Digital Cloud Policy was targeting $750 million in total digital infrastructure investments within two years, including an initial $250 million in private capital during the first year.
He said Nigeria would also work with neighbouring countries to harmonise digital standards and develop cross-border data transfer frameworks.
According to him, the initiative would strengthen Africa’s digital sovereignty by giving countries greater control over how their data is hosted, secured and scaled within the continent.
He called on global technology companies, cloud service providers and local infrastructure developers to take advantage of Nigeria’s expanding digital market and invest in the country’s emerging cloud ecosystem.
