By Stella Odueme
Nigeria is stepping up efforts to attract private capital into its digital infrastructure sector through a sovereign cloud strategy aimed at converting government policies into concrete investment opportunities.
The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, disclosed this at a fireside session titled “From Policy to Investable Demand” during ITW Data Cloud Africa 2026 in Nairobi, Kenya.
Abdullahi said the National Cloud Infrastructure Strategy was designed to provide investors with greater clarity on market opportunities while creating the demand needed to support the development of data centres, cloud services, connectivity infrastructure and other components of the digital economy.
According to a statement by the Director of Corporate Communications and Media Relations Mrs Hadiza Umar, on Wednesday, the session, moderated by Jay Katatumba, Senior Investment Director, Africa50 Infrastructure Acceleration, attracted key players in the digital infrastructure ecosystem, including data-centre operators, hyperscalers, investors, cloud providers, financial institutions and fibre and subsea cable companies.
The NITDA chief identified human capital, entrepreneurship, corporate demand, investment capital and government policy as the five major building blocks required to develop a sustainable digital ecosystem.
He said higher institutions must produce the required talent, entrepreneurs must commercialise innovations, businesses must absorb talent and solutions, while investors provide the capital necessary to scale emerging opportunities.
According to him, government’s responsibility is to provide predictable policies and a stable regulatory environment that encourages innovation and protects consumers.
Abdullahi said the government was already taking steps to create predictable demand for local digital infrastructure, citing regulatory measures requiring the domestic processing of certain financial transactions.
He said the National Digital Cloud Policy and its investment roadmap would further provide a framework for investors to establish local data centres, expand infrastructure and develop the workforce needed to support the sector.
Addressing concerns over electricity supply for data centres, the NITDA DG said operators would have access to alternative power arrangements rather than relying exclusively on the national grid.
He listed renewable energy, gas-powered generation and Independent Power Purchase Agreements among the options available to infrastructure operators.
He also advocated the use of hybrid cloud systems to enable businesses to maintain operational flexibility while meeting data protection and sovereignty requirements.
Abdullahi explained that sensitive sovereign data, particularly financial, health and intelligence information, would require stronger local protection because of its implications for national security and economic stability.
He said Nigeria’s digital infrastructure investment opportunities extended beyond cloud computing, stressing that broadband connectivity, cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence were mutually dependent.
He noted that Project Link was expanding broadband access nationwide, while the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative would provide the computing capacity required to support the development and deployment of locally generated AI applications.
The NITDA boss said sovereign AI capability would become increasingly important as artificial intelligence takes on greater roles in critical sectors, including banking, healthcare and judicial decision-making.
He also pointed to Nigeria’s improving standing in global AI governance, saying recent benchmarks ranked the country 38th globally.
Abdullahi urged investors to take advantage of the emerging opportunities, assuring them that the Federal Government was committed to partnering with private capital to build secure, resilient and scalable digital infrastructure capable of supporting Nigeria and the wider African market.