The Federal Government has unveiled a National Digital Cloud Policy aimed at attracting global technology investment, expanding Nigeria’s cloud and data infrastructure, and positioning the country as a regional hub for digital services.

The policy, unveiled by the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, is also designed to modernise government services, create jobs, strengthen local digital capabilities and protect sensitive government data.

Signing the statement announcing the policy on Monday, the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr ‘Bosun Tijani, said cloud and data infrastructure had become critical economic infrastructure, supporting sectors including artificial intelligence, financial services, healthcare, education, commerce and digital government.

He said Nigeria must take advantage of its large domestic market, growing broadband infrastructure, international connectivity and expanding technology talent base to attract investment into cloud infrastructure and increase its digital service exports.

“Nigeria must move from being primarily a consumer of global cloud infrastructure to becoming a competitive location for the infrastructure, investment, skills and digital services that will define the next phase of the global digital economy,” Tijani said.

The policy establishes four broad priorities: attracting investment into data centres and cloud infrastructure; positioning Nigeria as a regional digital services and hosting hub; transforming government through greater use of cloud services; and strengthening digital sovereignty and security.

According to the minister, the framework is deliberately designed to maintain an open and competitive cloud market, allowing both domestic and international providers to participate.

He said the government would not impose general data localisation requirements on commercial data, with sovereignty requirements restricted to defined categories of government and regulated data where national control is necessary.

“Our approach is deliberately open and investment-oriented. We want Nigerian and international providers to invest, build capacity, develop talent and serve both the Nigerian market and the wider African continent from Nigeria,” he said.

Tijani said the policy would also address the need to protect the country’s most sensitive digital assets while creating room for investment and competition.

“The National Digital Cloud Policy therefore provides a balanced framework; one that promotes investment and competition, strengthens indigenous capability, modernises Government and applies sovereignty requirements only where they are genuinely necessary,” he said.

Under the framework, cloud requirements from different ministries, departments and agencies will be combined to secure better commercial terms and reduce duplicated expenditure.

The government will also establish a National Digital Marketplace for coordinated and transparent procurement of cloud and digital infrastructure services.

The policy provides for dedicated cloud budget arrangements and an anchor-capacity mechanism to create more predictable government demand and encourage long-term private investment in local infrastructure.

To stimulate investment, the government will introduce a coordinated package of fiscal, regulatory, commercial and investment-facilitation measures for qualifying cloud and data infrastructure projects.

These will include appropriate fiscal treatment for eligible infrastructure and supporting equipment, regulatory facilitation, measures to address energy constraints, support for capital mobility and export earnings, as well as technology transfer and capability-development requirements for investors benefiting from government incentives.

The policy also seeks to make Nigeria a regional digital services exporter by supporting cross-border data flows, regional interconnection, international standards alignment and export promotion.

The government expects cloud and data services hosted in Nigeria to increasingly serve customers across the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the wider African market.

The minister said the initiative would help Nigeria move beyond being a consumer of digital services to becoming a producer and exporter of digital infrastructure and services.

The first six months will focus on policy activation, baseline assessments, implementation directives, institutional arrangements and investment facilitation.

Between six and 12 months, the government will operationalise the National Digital Marketplace, commence priority migration of federal ministries, departments and agencies to cloud services, onboard registered providers and begin regional market-development activities.

The final 12 months will focus on scaling government migration, expanding infrastructure capacity, onboarding participating states, strengthening regional interconnection and accelerating digital service exports.

The government has set a target of mobilising $250 million in private investment in Nigerian cloud and data infrastructure within the first 12 months, rising to $750 million within 24 months.

The policy will also track indicators including private investment committed, installed compliant hosting capacity, regional capacity contracted from Nigeria, digital service export earnings, government migration, cost savings and skills development.

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) will provide regulatory oversight, standards and assurance, while Galaxy Backbone (GBB) will lead operational delivery, shared infrastructure and demand aggregation.

The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) will ensure that procurement activities comply with public procurement requirements.

A Sovereign Government Cloud Governance Committee, chaired by the minister, will provide strategic oversight and whole-of-government coordination for the sovereignty framework.

Tijani said the policy would complement ongoing government investments in digital infrastructure and human capital, including Project BRIDGE, which is designed to deploy at least 90,000 kilometres of additional fibre-optic infrastructure, and the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme.

He said the combination of connectivity, cloud infrastructure, digital skills, investment and government demand would help accelerate Nigeria’s digital transformation.

The minister said the ministry would work with public institutions, state governments, cloud providers, data centre operators, investors, technology companies, academia and other stakeholders to implement the policy and establish Nigeria as a secure, competitive and globally connected digital infrastructure hub.