The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr Kashifu Inuwa, is Nigeria’s Chief Information Technology Officer. In this interview, he speaks on the newly signed National Sovereign Cloud Initiative, its implications for the average Nigerian, the localisation of hyperscalers, data sovereignty, digital infrastructure, costs and other issues. SEGUN KASALI brings the excerpts.

Can you give us a broad overview of the vision that led to the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative signed today? What was the driving consideration?

To keep it simple, the vision is to develop capacity for digital self-determination. This journey started in 2019 when we issued the “Cloud First Policy”. At the time, every ministry, department and agency (MDA) was building its own silo data centre. The operational cost was huge.

So, in 2019, we came up with a policy to discourage MDAs from building silo data centres and instead use cloud services. Cloud is cheaper, easier and you can scale quickly. With on-premise infrastructure, you have to replace everything when it reaches end-of-life.

What was the idea behind the policy?

The idea was to let government agencies stop spending money building technology infrastructure and instead patronise data centre providers — both local and international. We also had a local content policy that encouraged government agencies to keep data in-country and grow the local ecosystem.

But what happened after the Cloud First Policy was that people just moved straight to public cloud. It was easier. The problem is that we need to encourage the development of the local ecosystem.

How should this be looked at in the broader context of Nigeria and Africa’s technological development?

Look at it this way: Africa missed out on the first, second and third industrial revolutions, not because we lacked resources or human capital, but because of a lack of institutional and legal frameworks.

In the First Industrial Revolution, Africa provided human capital for labour and raw materials, but we didn’t build factories. In the Second Industrial Revolution, Africa was a big market with mineral resources, but we didn’t build industries. In the Third Industrial Revolution, we provided talent and consumed technology. We were always at the receiving end.

Now, we’re in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is data-driven. Everything is about data. The next wave of growth is digital transformation. We’ve built the communications infrastructure, but the content and services matter too.

What do the numbers tell us about Nigeria’s current dependence on public cloud infrastructure?

Today, more than 85 per cent of Nigeria’s workload is on public cloud. And more than 85 per cent of internet traffic between Africa and America is for content. Content we create locally travels all the way abroad to be consumed. Imagine localising that content and the innovation and economic activities we could create.

Was this what prompted a review of the existing policy?

Yes, we reviewed it. People were going to public cloud and getting waivers. Big tech companies would come, get a two-year waiver, and that was it.

We started asking: Where is your roadmap to localise infrastructure in Nigeria? They would say there was no data centre that met the specifications.

So, I challenged our local data centre providers: Why can’t you meet the requirements for hyperscalers to collocate with you? Some hyperscalers already have a “region” or “zone” in Nigeria, but they weren’t actively using it.

What was the response from the hyperscalers and local providers?

We brought hyperscalers and local providers into a room for a two-day summit. We asked the hard questions. At the end, it appeared that the issue was a lack of policy and regulatory clarity. Nobody would give a direct answer.

What did NITDA do after that?

We set up a Technical Working Group comprising both local providers and hyperscalers. The co-chairs were one local provider and one hyperscaler. The mandate was: deliver this for the nation. If we don’t do it, the next generation will ask why we failed.

We set up the committee in November 2024 after the summit. We had validation in February 2025. It took over a year.

Early this year, we had a validation workshop with all stakeholders — regulators, government institutions and others. After collecting their inputs, it took another five months to refine everything. We ended up with three documents.

What are the three documents?

The first is the Policy Framework Guideline, which deals with data classification, policy and related issues.

The second is the Technical Service Provider Guideline, which sets the minimum requirements and certifications needed to provide cloud services.

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The third is the Digital Quality Assurance Guideline, which is designed to ensure that we meet sovereign requirements.

Is the Sovereign Cloud Initiative protectionist in nature?

For us, sovereign cloud is not about protectionism or shutting out big cloud providers. It is about asking them to come and build with us in Nigeria.

Our lives depend on this infrastructure — life-saving services, transactional services and other critical services. We cannot afford downtime caused by submarine cable cuts.

What, then, is the big picture?

The big picture is to build a digital triangle in Nigeria for resilience and service assurance. If one location fails, traffic can fail over to another. This will also position Nigeria as the digital gateway for West and Central Africa.

For the average Nigerian, what is in this initiative for them?

Think of it like building refineries for fuel. Before, we depended on imported petrol — long queues and capital flight.

Today, ask an average Nigerian what they spend their last cash on; most will say “data”. Some buy data instead of food. But that data is used to consume services that cost money, often paid for in dollars.

Imagine paying for all those platforms in naira, with no capital flight. Imagine jobs being created in Nigeria. Imagine Nigerians building content locally and providing the talent to work with content creators.

And we’re building big hyperscale data centres — the “data refineries” — which will create jobs.

How does this initiative close the infrastructure gap? What are the government and NITDA providing for local data centres?

We have a strategy built around six pillars.

The first is Policy and Regulatory Instruments. This gives the legal backing for MDAs to “cloudify”, creates demand for local providers and sets standards and certification requirements.

The second is Funding and Investment — incentives to unlock local funds. For example, NSIA invested in Cassava to build local infrastructure. Others can do the same.

The third is Infrastructure, which is being addressed through policy.

The fourth is Skills and Talent. We’ve worked with the Ministry of Education to make digital skills mandatory. Universities are now teaching AI, cloud and cybersecurity.

The fifth is Innovation and Local Content. Look at what the CBN did with the cashless policy that helped to birth fintech. We need the same thing in other sectors. An example is the new Office of Digital Health Technology.

The sixth is Cybersecurity and Digital Trust. People must trust the technology to use it.

What will make it cheaper for a Nigerian startup to host locally rather than use AWS and other international providers?

NITDA and Galaxy Backbone are signing an MoU to make cloud services cheaper for startups and payable in naira.

It is also about market dynamics — demand and supply. Right now, the lack of competition means hyperscalers set their own prices. With local competition and capacity, prices will naturally drop. People will go where it is cheaper.

For the wider market, the Sovereign Cloud Governance Committee will recommend incentives, including possible subsidised capacity, procurement preferences and tax relief. Some of these are beyond NITDA, so we will work with other regulators.

Hosting locally has historically been more expensive. If local capacity remains expensive, are MDAs still bound by the Cloud First Policy?

Cloud First is a policy, so everyone is bound to comply.

But our goal is not to take away public cloud. It is to get hyperscalers to localise. And we are already seeing interest — some have reached out to us on how to achieve that.