Nigeria is pressing global cloud companies to build more infrastructure inside the country after more than 85% of Nigerian workloads moved to public platforms.
This comes as the Nigerian government has signed regulatory instruments for a National Sovereign Cloud Initiative with Galaxy Backbone Limited, the state-owned digital infrastructure company.
The framework sets policy, technical and quality requirements for hosting more government and business services in Nigeria. It does not ban foreign cloud providers, but asks them to provide a clearer path to local deployment.
The policy follows Nigeria’s decision to require banks and fintechs to keep payment data at home by 2027, increasing the need for secure local cloud and data-centre capacity.
Kashifu Inuwa, director-general of the National Information Technology Development Agency, told TechCabal that more than 85% of Nigerian workloads now run on public clouds. Only 22% of the country’s 1,000 most-accessed websites are hosted locally, below the 34% average for sub-Saharan Africa.
Why Nigeria wants cloud infrastructure at home
Nigeria’s 2019 Cloud First Policy encouraged government agencies to stop building isolated server rooms and move services to cloud platforms. The policy reduced the need for every agency to maintain its own infrastructure, but it also accelerated the movement of workloads to foreign providers.
NITDA now wants that cloud growth to create more domestic investment. Local data centres could allow companies to pay for some services in naira, reduce exposure to dollar costs and create jobs in network engineering, software, cybersecurity and content delivery.
The demand is also being shaped by Nigeria’s AI adoption gap. Businesses need larger and more reliable computing capacity to turn a growing pool of AI skills into deployed services.
Power remains one of the main obstacles. Electricity shortages already threaten Africa’s ability to capture the economic value of AI, and data centres require stable, high-capacity power around the clock.
NITDA said the initiative is not intended to exclude Microsoft, Google, Amazon or other public-cloud providers. The agency wants those companies to deploy more infrastructure locally and work with Nigerian data-centre operators.
The government has created a technical working group of local providers and global cloud companies. The framework covers data classification, standards for cloud service providers and digital quality assurance.
NITDA and Galaxy Backbone are also working on lower-cost cloud services for startups, with payment in naira. Greater local capacity could create more competition, although the government has not yet specified the incentives it may offer investors.
Cloud localisation is also intended to reduce the damage caused by failures in international connectivity. In March 2024, damage to four undersea cables disrupted internet services across West Africa and affected banks, telecom companies and other digital businesses.
New infrastructure such as Orange’s planned 20,000-kilometre cable linking Nigeria, Africa and Europe can add capacity, but local hosting determines how much activity can continue when an external connection fails.
For Nigerian companies, the test will be price and performance. Local providers must compete with global platforms on cost, security and reliability. For the government, the test is whether the sovereign cloud framework produces functioning infrastructure rather than another compliance layer for businesses.
NITDA director-general Kashifu Inuwa speaks during the National Cloud Infrastructure Summit as Nigeria pushes for more locally hosted cloud infrastructure.
