Nigeria unveils national digital cloud policy to attract $750 million investment and boost digital economy

This initiative aims to establish Nigeria as a prominent cloud computing and data-hosting hub for West Africa and the broader African market. The policy, launched by the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, provides a framework for investment in data centers, cloud infrastructure, and artificial intelligence computing capacity. It also sets new rules for government cloud adoption and the protection of sensitive public data.

Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, stated that the policy seeks to transform Nigeria from a consumer of foreign cloud services into a competitive location for infrastructure, investment, skills, and digital service exports. The government plans to maintain an open and competitive market for both domestic and international cloud providers, while also protecting sensitive public and regulated information through targeted sovereignty requirements. The policy focuses on investment and market development, regional digital service exports, government cloud transformation, and digital sovereignty and security.

It will provide fiscal, regulatory, and investment facilitation measures for qualifying cloud and data infrastructure projects. A whole-of-government cloud aggregation model will be implemented for Federal Ministries, Departments