Nigeria is positioning itself to become a major cloud computing and data-hosting hub in Africa as the Federal Government unveils a new National Digital Cloud Policy designed to attract $750 million in private investment within the next 24 months. The initiative, announced by the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, is expected to drive investment in data centres, cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence computing capacity while creating opportunities for Nigeria to export digital services across West Africa and the wider African market.
Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, said the policy is aimed at changing Nigeria’s position from mainly consuming foreign cloud services to becoming a competitive destination for digital infrastructure, investment, talent and technology. According to the minister, the government wants both local and international cloud providers to build capacity in Nigeria and use the country as a base to serve customers across Africa. The government’s initial target is to mobilise $750 million in investment over 24 months, alongside increased hosting capacity and growth in regional digital service exports.
A major part of the policy is the creation of a more investment-friendly environment for cloud and data infrastructure projects. The government plans to introduce fiscal, regulatory and investment facilitation measures while addressing challenges around energy, capital mobility, export earnings, technology transfer and skills development. At the same time, the policy avoids imposing blanket data localisation requirements on commercial information. Instead, stricter sovereignty rules will apply to specific categories of sensitive government and regulated data that require greater national protection.
The policy also introduces a Cloud First approach for government, bringing Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies together to pool their demand for cloud services. The government believes this could reduce duplicated spending, strengthen its negotiating power and create more predictable demand for private cloud infrastructure. A National Digital Marketplace will also be established to support transparent procurement, while the National Information Technology Development Agency will oversee regulation and standards and Galaxy Backbone will manage operational delivery and shared infrastructure.
Implementation of the policy will take place over 24 months, beginning with policy activation, baseline assessments and investment facilitation before moving into government cloud migration and provider onboarding. The final phase will focus on expanding infrastructure, bringing participating states into the system, improving regional connectivity and increasing digital service exports. The policy will also complement Project BRIDGE’s planned fibre expansion and the 3 Million Technical Talent programme, with the government hoping that stronger connectivity, cloud infrastructure, skilled workers and investment will help establish Nigeria as a competitive digital powerhouse.
source: punch
