The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has outlined a strategy to attract greater investment in data centres and other critical digital infrastructure as Nigeria’s growing demand for digital services creates new opportunities for technology investors.
NITDA Director-General Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi made the case during a high-level panel on “Converting Digital Demand into Data Centre Investment” at the recently concluded ITW Data Cloud Africa 2026.
The discussion brought together key industry players, including Ike Nnamani of Digital Realty Nigeria, Wole Abu of Equinix, Temitope Osunrinde of Africa Hyperscalers and Cherotich Kiereini of Oracle.
Inuwa said converting Nigeria’s expanding digital activity into sustainable infrastructure investment would require clear government policies, regulatory certainty and a secure environment in which investors can plan and operate with confidence.
He said government’s role should begin with providing clarity on its strategic direction, allowing investors to understand what infrastructure is required, how it will be deployed and the regulatory framework governing its operation.
According to him, predictable policies can give operators the confidence to commit capital to long-term infrastructure projects while helping government coordinate the development of the wider digital ecosystem.
Beyond its population, Inuwa said Nigeria’s growing appeal to data centre investors lies in the increasing volume of digital workloads being generated within the country and its potential to serve as a connectivity hub for West and Central Africa.
He also pointed to Nigeria’s expanding technology talent pool, which he said provides the expertise needed to develop digital services and applications on top of modern connectivity infrastructure.
Inuwa said the government was also placing digital trust and cybersecurity at the centre of its infrastructure strategy, noting that investors and users would require confidence that digital systems could withstand emerging threats.
He highlighted initiatives including the Digital Assurance Framework, the Cybercrime Act and the broader National Cybersecurity Architecture as part of efforts to strengthen security across Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.
He added that cybersecurity-by-design requirements were increasingly being applied to government technology projects, covering systems from last-mile devices to critical national infrastructure.
The NITDA chief said the combination of policy certainty, connectivity, local expertise and stronger cybersecurity standards would provide a foundation for the development of data centres, cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Nigeria.
As demand for cloud services and AI-enabled applications continues to grow, the ability to match that demand with reliable local infrastructure is expected to become increasingly important to Nigeria’s digital economy.
