The Nigerian Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, the federal department overseeing national technology strategy, has introduced the National Cloud Policy. The government framework aims to attract $750 million in private investment over the next 24 months to expand local cloud and data center capacity. Administrators expect the initiative to generate $250 million in private capital during its first 12 months, establishing the country as a regional hub for data hosting and digital services.
Under the new rules, the government will maintain an open market for both domestic and international cloud providers. The policy applies specific data sovereignty requirements exclusively to sensitive public sector and regulated information. Commercial data remains exempt from blanket localization mandates. To encourage capacity building, the state will offer incentives covering taxation, regulation, energy, technology transfer and skills development.
The framework enforces a "Cloud First" operational mandate for state agencies and pools cloud computing demand across ministries to reduce duplication and cut costs. Execution involves three distinct federal entities. The National Information Technology Development Agency, the statutory body governing IT policies, will handle regulation and standards. Galaxy Backbone, the state-owned enterprise technology and shared services provider, is tasked with managing shared infrastructure and operational delivery. The Bureau of Public Procurement, the federal regulatory authority for public spending, will oversee purchasing compliance.
According to Bosun Tijani, minister of communications, innovation and digital economy, Nigeria must move from being predominantly a consumer of foreign cloud infrastructure to becoming a base for investment, infrastructure development, talent and digital service exports. This cloud framework operates alongside other federal technology initiatives, including Project BRIDGE, a national broadband infrastructure initiative planning a 90,000 km fiber expansion, and the 3 Million Technical Talent programme, a state-sponsored digital skills training scheme designed to supply the broader digital economy.
