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The Federal Government has unveiled a National Digital Cloud Policy aimed at attracting $750 million in private investment within 24 months and positioning Nigeria as a regional hub for cloud computing and data hosting.
Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, said the policy would move Nigeria beyond being a consumer of foreign cloud services.
“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,” he stated.
The framework covers investment in data centres, cloud infrastructure and AI computing capacity, while introducing new rules for government cloud adoption and protection of sensitive public data.
Sovereignty provisions will apply only to defined categories of government and regulated data, not commercial data.
The policy focuses on four areas: investment and market development, regional digital service exports, government cloud transformation, and digital sovereignty and security.
Fiscal and regulatory incentives will be provided for qualifying projects, alongside measures to address energy constraints, capital mobility and skills development.
A “Cloud First” approach will see Ministries, Departments and Agencies pool demand through a whole-of-government aggregation model, reducing duplicated spending and improving bargaining power. A National Digital Marketplace will also be established to coordinate procurement of cloud services.
Implementation will take place over 24 months, beginning with policy activation and baseline assessments, followed by the launch of the marketplace, priority migrations and onboarding of providers.
The final phase will expand infrastructure, strengthen regional interconnection and boost digital service exports.
The policy complements Project BRIDGE, which targets 90,000km of fibre-optic infrastructure, and the 3 Million Technical Talent programme, which is building skills in cloud computing, AI, cybersecurity and software engineering.
The government said the combination of connectivity, infrastructure, skills and incentives would create an integrated digital ecosystem to support Nigeria’s economic transformation.
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