By Chimezie Godfrey
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has inaugurated a taskforce to drive the implementation of Nigeria’s sovereign cloud initiative, with the agency targeting greater digital independence, increased investment, job creation and reduced migration of technology professionals.
Speaking at the inauguration in Abuja, NITDA Director-General, Kashifu Inuwa, said the initiative represented a major reform capable of transforming critical sectors of the economy by ensuring greater control over the digital infrastructure and data supporting Nigeria’s digital economy.
Inuwa said unlike earlier reforms in sectors such as telecommunications and banking, digital transformation cuts across virtually every area of the economy, including education, healthcare, finance, agriculture and manufacturing.
He said the taskforce would prioritise compliance with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s January 1 deadline for financial institutions and work with stakeholders to build confidence in locally hosted and compliant cloud solutions.
According to him, NITDA would organise workshops to showcase compliant cloud services to banks and other regulated institutions while developing an end-to-end certification framework for infrastructure providers, cloud service providers and system integrators involved in migrating financial institutions to compliant cloud environments.
“We want you to work with us to co-design how we can certify the infrastructure providers, the cloud service providers, and cloud educators. Because we need to certify end-to-end, from the infrastructure, the cloud services, and those who will go and help banks to migrate,” Inuwa said.
The NITDA boss disclosed that the agency plans to launch a portal by October containing a directory of certified cloud service providers, infrastructure providers, system integrators and aggregators.
He explained that the portal would enable banks and other regulated institutions to identify accredited technology providers for their cloud migration needs.
Inuwa also stressed the importance of monitoring cloud infrastructure to ensure that sovereign data remains hosted within Nigeria and that regulated institutions comply with applicable requirements.
Beyond data protection and regulatory compliance, he said the sovereign cloud initiative would create opportunities for Nigerian technology professionals to build careers and businesses locally, helping to reduce the loss of skilled talent to other countries.
The Director of Payment System Policy at the CBN, Rakiya Yusuf, said digital stability was fundamental to the stability of the financial system.
Yusuf stressed the need for reliable and timely data to support effective policy formulation and decision-making, assuring that the CBN would continue to collaborate with NITDA and other stakeholders to ensure the successful implementation of the framework.
She described the initiative as an important component of Nigeria’s broader economic transformation agenda.
Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer of Medallion Data Centres Limited, Ikechukwu Nnamani, said the sovereign cloud policy could attract significant foreign direct investment into Nigeria’s data centre, connectivity and cloud infrastructure sectors.
Nnamani said localising cloud infrastructure could reduce capital flight by keeping payments for cloud services within the country while easing pressure on the naira.
He added that the initiative would create jobs, strengthen national security and improve digital service delivery through reduced latency.
“We are beginning to see a lot of companies come to Nigeria to physically deploy and implement their cloud infrastructure locally. So that is going to drive in foreign direct investment into the country,” Nnamani said.
He said the development would also provide Nigerians, particularly young people, with opportunities to acquire skills in emerging technologies and participate in the expanding digital economy.
Earlier, the Acting Director of NITDA’s Regulation and Compliance Department, Emmanuel Edet, said the inauguration marked the transition from the development of Nigeria’s cloud guidelines to their implementation.
Edet said the taskforce would provide a platform for regulators, government agencies and private-sector stakeholders to collaborate on strengthening Nigeria’s digital sovereignty and creating an enabling environment for economic growth.
“We want to create a framework where regulators, stakeholders, private sector can actually work together to achieve a common goal which will eventually translate to other sectors of the economy,” he said.
Edet reaffirmed NITDA’s commitment to ensuring that Nigeria fully harnesses the opportunities presented by the digital economy, stressing that the country must develop the capacity to maximise its potential in the digital environment.