Nigeria Moves to Harness $1bn Public IT Demand for Domestic Cloud Ecosystem
Nigeria is seeking to leverage nearly $1 billion in annual public-sector technology demand to accelerate the development of a robust domestic cloud computing ecosystem and position the country as a major digital infrastructure hub in West Africa.
The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, disclosed this while speaking at a workshop on “Nigeria’s Digital Infrastructure Opportunity” during ITW Data Cloud Africa 2026.
Kashifu said the Federal Government was repositioning its digital infrastructure strategy to reduce reliance on offshore computing resources while creating predictable demand for local cloud infrastructure developers and global technology investors.
He said Nigeria’s growing digital economy presented a significant opportunity for investors, noting that domestic data capacity was already operating at nearly 90 per cent utilisation, despite the country’s huge demand for computing and digital services.
According to him, the government is deploying its purchasing power through a newly institutionalised Cloud-First Policy, which seeks to consolidate fragmented public-sector technology spending and make government a major anchor customer for cloud and shared digital infrastructure.
The NITDA chief revealed that 326 federal ministries, departments and agencies spent about ₦3.89 trillion, equivalent to approximately $2.9 billion, on technology investments between 2023 and mid-2026.
He added that government technology demand alone generates nearly $1 billion annually, which the government intends to increasingly channel towards cloud infrastructure and shared architecture rather than duplicative data centres operated independently by public institutions.
Kashifu said the approach would provide a more structured market for infrastructure providers while enabling the private sector to participate in developing and operating critical digital infrastructure.
The NITDA DG also disclosed that the agency was working to address regulatory fragmentation, which he identified as one of the challenges confronting investors in Nigeria’s digital infrastructure sector.
He said NITDA was establishing a single-interface portal designed to streamline compliance requirements across relevant government agencies and provide greater regulatory certainty for investors.
According to him, the framework would promote horizontal standards and greater alignment among regulatory institutions, allowing sector-specific regulators to operate around common baseline requirements.
He cited financial institutions as an example, explaining that greater regulatory coordination would enable them to migrate core data to locally hosted cloud systems without facing multiple and overlapping approval processes.
Kashifu stressed that the objective of the framework was to create a competitive market rather than impose excessive regulatory burdens or use digital infrastructure regulation primarily as a revenue-generation mechanism.
He said the government was prioritizing competition, interoperability and an investment-friendly environment while developing the country’s cloud ecosystem.
The NITDA boss further highlighted Nigeria’s expanding digital economy as a major driver of the government’s cloud infrastructure ambitions.
He said broadband penetration had recently increased by almost 10 percentage points to more than 56 per cent, while Nigeria had approximately 192 million mobile subscribers and 157 million internet users.
Kashifu noted that available research indicates that every dollar invested in Nigeria’s digital infrastructure could generate about eight dollars in broader economic returns.
He added that the domestic cloud computing market was projected to grow from approximately $376 million in 2026 to more than $783 million by 2031, reflecting growing demand for secure and scalable digital infrastructure.
Beyond the domestic market, Abdullahi said Nigeria’s digital infrastructure strategy was designed to support broader connectivity and cloud services across West and Central Africa.
He said Nigeria’s geographical position provided an opportunity to serve as a digital transit and infrastructure hub for neighbouring landlocked countries.
Under the National Digital Cloud Policy, the country is targeting about $750 million in total digital infrastructure investments within two years, beginning with a target of $250 million in private-sector capital during the first year.
The NITDA DG said harmonising digital infrastructure standards with neighbouring countries would also create opportunities for cross-border data-transfer frameworks and strengthen Africa’s capacity to determine how its data is hosted, protected and managed.
He said the long-term objective was to build a cloud ecosystem that would give African countries greater control over their digital assets while enabling regional interoperability and investment.
The initiative, he added, is expected to strengthen Nigeria’s position as a strategic destination for cloud infrastructure investment and accelerate the country’s transition from a major consumer of offshore digital services to a regional provider of cloud computing capacity.
