Nigeria is seeking to leverage its huge public-sector technology spending to attract at least $750 million in digital infrastructure investment and establish itself as a major cloud computing hub for West and Central 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.
He said the Federal Government was repositioning Nigeria from a heavy consumer of offshore digital services into a strategic producer and regional provider of cloud computing capacity, supported by clearer regulations, structured demand and increased private-sector investment.
According to Inuwa, the strategy is designed to address a major gap in Nigeria’s digital economy, where huge domestic demand for computing and digital services is still being met largely through foreign infrastructure.
He said local data capacity is already operating at nearly 90 percent utilisation, making the development of additional domestic capacity imperative if Nigeria is to reduce its dependence on offshore resources and retain more digital value within the economy.
A major component of the strategy, he explained, is the Federal Government’s newly institutionalised “Cloud-First Policy”, through which government technology demand will be consolidated to create a predictable market for private infrastructure developers.
Inuwa revealed that 326 federal ministries, departments and agencies invested N3.89 trillion, equivalent to about $2.9 billion, in technology between 2023 and mid-2026.
He said government technology demand alone generates close to $1 billion annually, adding that the Federal Government intends to channel a significant portion of this spending towards cloud infrastructure and shared digital architecture rather than fragmented, agency-specific data centres.
The NITDA Director-General said the approach would give private-sector infrastructure providers the scale and certainty required to invest in large, commercially viable cloud facilities while improving efficiency across government.
On regulatory reforms, Inuwa said the government was also working to remove one of the major barriers to investment in Nigeria’s digital infrastructure sector by creating a more predictable and coordinated compliance environment.
The NITDA boss said, “To ensure investor confidence, NITDA is replacing fragmented, unpredictable oversight with a unified regulatory approach. Addressing a common hurdle for international investors, the agency is establishing a single-interface portal that streamlines compliance across multiple government bodies. Through horizontal standards, cross-agency alignment allows sector watchdogs—such as the Central Bank of Nigeria to adopt shared baseline requirements.
“This setup enables financial institutions to migrate core data to local cloud systems seamlessly without navigating redundant regulatory approvals. Agency officials emphasised that this framework is designed purely for market creation rather than revenue extraction, prioritising healthy competition and international interoperability over rigid localisation rules.”
He said the economic case for investment in digital infrastructure was equally compelling, citing Nigeria’s expanding broadband, mobile and internet user base.
According to him, broadband penetration has risen by nearly 10 percentage points to more than 56 percent, while the country has about 192 million mobile subscribers and 157 million internet users.
He added that research indicating that every dollar invested in Nigerian digital infrastructure could generate as much as eight dollars in broader economic returns further underscored the sector’s investment potential.
The domestic cloud market, he noted, is projected to expand from approximately $376 million in 2026 to more than $783 million by 2031, with the Federal Government hoping that its policy interventions and increased infrastructure investment would accelerate the market’s growth.
Beyond meeting Nigeria’s domestic needs, Inuwa said the Federal Government’s ambition was to position the country as a digital infrastructure gateway for the wider West and Central African markets.
He said Nigeria’s geographical position gives it a strategic advantage as a transit and connectivity hub for neighbouring landlocked countries, creating opportunities for cloud providers and infrastructure developers to serve markets beyond Nigeria.
Under the National Digital Cloud Policy, the government is targeting $750 million in digital infrastructure investments over the next two years, with an initial target of $250 million in private capital during the first year.
Inuwa said the strategy would also involve harmonising digital standards with partner countries to facilitate cross-border data flows and create a more integrated African digital ecosystem.
The broader objective, he said, is to promote digital self-determination across the continent by enabling African countries to have greater control over how their data is hosted, secured and scaled, while maintaining interoperability with international digital markets.
With its large population, growing digital economy, substantial government technology spending and expanding connectivity, Nigeria is betting that a combination of predictable demand, regulatory certainty and private investment can transform the country into one of Africa’s leading cloud and digital infrastructure markets.