By Stella Odueme
The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, has advocated a coordinated regulatory approach that would enable digital infrastructure investors to deal with government through a single, seamless interface.
Inuwa made the call at a Regulatory Roundtable themed, “Regulations that Build: Aligning Policy and Digital Infrastructure Investment Priorities.” at the ITW Data Cloud Africa 2026 event held in Nairobi, Kenya.
According to a statement by the Director of Corporate Communications and Media Relations of NITDA, Mrs. Hadiza Umar on Tuesday, he said multiple regulations, overlapping mandates and lengthy approval processes often discourage both foreign and local investors, stressing the need for government agencies to work together to create a more efficient business environment.
According to him, investors expect governments to operate as a unified system rather than as separate institutions with different procedures and regulatory requirements.
He explained that greater coordination among agencies would reduce duplication, shorten licensing processes and provide businesses with clearer and more predictable timelines.
The NITDA boss noted that the increasing convergence of technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and high-density data centres has made traditional sector-based regulations less effective.
He said NITDA was responding to the changing digital landscape by promoting a horizontal regulatory framework that provides broad standards upon which sector regulators can build.
Inuwa cited Nigeria’s National Sovereign Cloud Initiative as an example of the benefits of coordinated regulation, explaining that the Central Bank of Nigeria adopted NITDA’s framework to develop a unified regulatory approach for the financial sector.
The arrangement, he said, allows banks to meet digital stability requirements without going through multiple approval processes.
On cross-border data flows, Inuwa called for stronger cooperation among African countries to develop common standards based on interoperability, trust and security.
He said harmonised data classification systems would help distinguish sovereign data that must remain within national borders from data that could be stored on public or hybrid cloud platforms.
Such standards, he added, would promote easier data exchange across African markets and allow countries to recognise one another’s compliance frameworks.
Inuwa also dismissed the notion that regulators should see technology companies mainly as sources of revenue.
He said NITDA’s Regulatory Intelligence Framework was designed to support innovation, stimulate investment and enable businesses to grow.
According to him, the agency does not charge businesses for its regulations but focuses on creating markets, building local capacity and attracting sustainable investment into the digital economy.
Other panelists at the roundtable included Caroline Okafor of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC); Tony Izuagbe Emoekpere, President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON); Mercy Ndegwa, Meta’s Director of Public Policy for East and Horn of Africa and Economic Policy Lead for Africa; and Engr. Dennis Chepkwony, Director of the Universal Service Fund at the Communications Authority of Kenya.