Nigeria is setting its sights on a digital future, with industry leaders and government collaborating to expand the country’s data-centre capacity.
  
From a current load of about 50 megawatts, the ambitious plan aims to quadruple capacity to 200 megawatts within the next five years, positioning the country as a rising hub for digital infrastructure in Africa.
 
The target was disclosed by the Chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, during a virtual interaction with telecom sector stakeholders.
 
He stressed that this expansion reflected Nigeria’s growing demand for cloud services, fintech innovation, and digital transformation across sectors.
 
With more businesses relying on data-driven solutions, he said the push to scale up capacity is critical to supporting economic growth, attracting foreign investment, and ensuring resilience amid increasing technological needs.
 
Yilwatda, who noted that the next decade would be defined by artificial intelligence, said “the question for Nigeria is not whether AI will shape our economy. It will. The question is whether we will shape it, or simply rent it.”
 
He disclosed that Nigeria has a National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, and the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy has indicated that it has been finalised and is awaiting legislative backing.
 
“In August, the Federal Government unveiled the National Digital Cloud Policy, which aims to attract $750 million in private investment into cloud and data infrastructure within 24 months, with $250 million targeted in the first 12 months. Industry and government are now working towards expanding Nigeria’s data-centre capacity from about 50 megawatts to 200 megawatts of IT load over the next five years.”
  
According to him, these are the right ambitions. “But I want to connect them to the realities that you, as operators, confront every day. Data centres consume power and water on a scale that our grid and utilities have not historically been designed to supply, and analysts are already warning that access to energy may determine which facilities survive.”   
  
To him, an AI strategy without an energy strategy is incomplete. He said this is why digital infrastructure must be treated as a priority load in our power-sector reforms, and why embedded generation, renewable power purchase arrangements and gas supply for digital infrastructure clusters must be part of the same conversation.
  
“We must also be honest about the balance between openness and sovereignty. The cloud policy’s preference for certified local providers in public procurement is designed to build domestic capacity and keep critical data onshore. I support that direction.
 
“But sovereignty must not become an excuse for protectionism that raises costs and drives away the global partners whose technology and capital we need. The right model is sovereign control with open participation: Nigerian law, Nigerian jurisdiction, and Nigerian standards, delivered by any competent investor, local or foreign, who is prepared to build here, hire here, and comply here,” he noted.
  
Meanwhile, the National Commissioner, Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Dr Vincent Olatunji, has assured of working with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to ensure that data is effectively protected.
  
Recall that the CBN, early this year, had directed deposit money banks, fintech companies, and other licensed payment service providers to ensure that all payment transaction data generated within the country is stored on local servers starting from January 1, 2027.
  
As such, at the Cloud Ready Nigeria 2.0 Financial Services Roundtable held in Lagos, Olatunji disclosed, “We are looking forward to working with CBN to ensure that data is rigorously protected.”
 
Olatunji, who was represented by the Head of the Regulations Unit, Ibukunoluwa Owa, also said that inter-agency and regulatory harmony is extremely important.
 
To this end, he suggested that banks, fintechs, and pension companies must conduct third-party risk assessments and due diligence before engaging companies to process data.
 
He added: “They must also be transparent, and there is a need to look out for the data recovery plans.”
 
Olatunji added that the role of the Data Protection Officer also becomes important here.
 
Director of the CBN’s Payments System Supervision Department, Rakiya Yusuf, who was represented by the CBN’s Payments Systems Supervision Division, Babatunde Ajiboye, noted that the compliance date hasn’t changed and remains January 1, 2027.
 
To her, “the practical sequence is to audit and classify the data, agree on the local architecture and contracts, then migrate, test, and independently verify completion.”
 
She also stressed the need to preserve service continuity and data integrity throughout the transition.
 
Executive Director of Africa Hyperscalers, Temitope Osunrinde, noted, “For protecting sensitive data, building trust is important. The question is how to implement the policy successfully across the financial sector and how infrastructure providers can work together. The implementation will also require clear guidelines.”
 
The Chief Executive Officer of Open Access Data Centres, Ayotunde Coker, stressed the need to conduct risk analysis before deciding what to migrate, rather than treating localisation as a straight forward relocation exercise.
   
He also harped on the importance of local data centres, connectivity and reliable power in building a resilient and sustainable digital infrastructure.
   
On his part, Chief Operating Officer of Nobus Cloud, Stephen Okoye, observed that locally developed cloud technology could support financial institutions seeking to move workloads into the country while retaining the technical controls required for regulated operations.