The Federal Government has launched a National Digital Cloud Policy aimed at attracting $750 million in private investment within the next 24 months and establishing Nigeria as a leading cloud computing and data-hosting hub in West Africa and across the continent.
Unveiled by the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, the policy provides a framework for investment in data centres, cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence computing capacity. It also outlines guidelines for government adoption of cloud services and the protection of sensitive public and regulated data.
Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, said the policy seeks to move Nigeria beyond its current role as a consumer of foreign cloud services and position the country as a destination for digital infrastructure, investment, skilled talent and technology exports.
Tijani said the government’s immediate objective is to mobilise $750 million in private investment over 24 months, while increasing compliant hosting capacity and expanding Nigeria’s regional cloud export market.
He added that the government would maintain an open and competitive market that allows both Nigerian and international cloud providers to invest, expand their infrastructure and serve customers locally and across Africa.
However, the policy provides for targeted data-sovereignty requirements covering sensitive government and regulated information. It does not impose blanket data-localisation requirements on commercial data.
The framework is built around four major priorities: investment and market development, regional digital service exports, government cloud transformation, and digital sovereignty and security.
To stimulate investment, the government plans to introduce fiscal, regulatory and investment facilitation measures for qualifying cloud and data infrastructure projects. The measures will cover areas such as eligible infrastructure and equipment, energy challenges, capital mobility, export earnings, technology transfer and workforce development.
The policy also establishes a whole-of-government cloud aggregation model, under which Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies will pool their demand for cloud services from registered providers.
According to the government, the model will help reduce duplicated expenditure, strengthen its negotiating power and create predictable demand that can encourage long-term private investment in local cloud infrastructure.
A National Digital Marketplace will also be established to promote coordinated and transparent procurement of cloud and digital infrastructure services.
The government further aims to position Nigeria as a regional exporter of digital services by enabling cloud infrastructure hosted in the country to serve customers across the Economic Community of West African States and the wider African market.
The policy strengthens the government’s “Cloud First” approach through shared infrastructure, coordinated procurement and aggregated demand across MDAs.
Under the new framework, the National Information Technology Development Agency will be responsible for regulatory oversight, standards and assurance, while Galaxy Backbone Limited will oversee operational delivery, shared infrastructure and demand aggregation. The Bureau of Public Procurement will ensure compliance with public procurement requirements.
The government will assess the policy’s performance using indicators including private investment attracted, growth in compliant hosting capacity, regional cloud capacity contracted from Nigeria, digital service export earnings, government migration to cloud services, cost savings and skills development.
