By Stanley Iwuoha
Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has launched a Technical Working Group (TWG) to drive the country’s digital sovereignty.
The TWG aims to enhance local cloud capabilities, attract hyper-scale investments, and position Nigeria as a leading technology hub in Africa.
According to NITDA’s Director-General, Kashifu Inuwa, accurate data and regulatory frameworks are crucial for Nigeria to control its digital infrastructure, data, and technological future.
He emphasized that without these foundations, Nigeria cannot achieve true digital sovereignty.
While identifying lack of accurate data on Nigeria’s IT infrastructure as significant challenge, Inuwa noted that while Africa comprises nearly 19% of the world’s population, it hosts less than 1% of global data centres. “This disparity, coupled with limited insights into Nigeria’s existing IT capacity, hampers investment efforts and without clear data on our infrastructure, attracting investment becomes challenging,” he said.
The NITDA boss maintained that, to address this, NITDA commissioned comprehensive research to assess Nigeria’s digital landscape which findings have highlighted the need for improved regulatory frameworks, clearer investment incentives, and stronger public-private collaboration. He added that subsequently upon this, NITDA has engaged global consultants to redefine strategies for cloud development.
He urged industry experts, policymakers, and stakeholders to contribute their expertise and resources. “With collective effort, Nigeria can emerge as the premier digital hub for West and Central Africa,” he said.
The TWG will focus on several key areas, including: Attracting hyperscale investments; encouraging global tech companies to invest in Nigeria’s digital infrastructure; enhancing local cloud capabilities; developing local data centers and cloud services to support Nigerian businesses and organizations; developing regulatory frameworks; creating policies and laws that support cloud development and data protection in Nigeria and capacity building, Providing training and expertise to Nigerians to fully leverage digital technologies.
The TWG includes representatives from top tech companies, such as Google, AWS, IBM, and Microsoft, HUAWEI Cloud, Equinix, Kasi, Rack Centre, Africa Data Centres as well as Nigerian data center operators and regulatory bodies.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Data Protection Commission has pledged it’s support and readiness to volunteer and contribute resources towards the successful execution of the project.
