Policy, not just infrastructure, is the critical driver of Nigeria’s digital transformation, the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency, Mr. Kashifu Inuwa, has said.
Speaking at a panel session during the IoT West Africa Conference on the theme _“The Lagos-Abuja Digital Corridor: Building Africa’s Next Data Centre and Cloud Hub”_, Inuwa stressed that policy creates the enabling environment for sustainable digital growth. He was represented by Dr. Aristotle Onumo, Director, Stakeholders Management and Partnership.
“While infrastructure responds to demand, policy remains the critical driver that creates an enabling environment for sustainable digital growth,” Onumo said.
IoT West Africa brings together industry leaders, policymakers, and innovators to discuss the Internet of Things, smart cities, AI, cloud computing, and digital transformation.
Onumo explained that Nigeria’s broadband policy, which sets minimum speeds of 10 Mbps for rural areas and 25 Mbps for urban centres, provides a strategic framework for infrastructure deployment along the Lagos-Abuja digital corridor.
He cautioned that without deliberate collaboration between government, the private sector, and civil society, widespread infrastructure rollout would remain challenging.
“Collaboration is the pathway that massifies impact, while partnership harnesses collective intelligence. No one can achieve this in isolation,” he said.
Onumo highlighted the Nigerian Sovereign Cloud Project as a flagship initiative to strengthen indigenous cloud providers and curb the dominance of foreign hyperscale operators. The project aims to domesticate data hosting, cut operational costs, and improve cloud access nationwide by scaling local infrastructure to global standards.
He added that policy must also stimulate demand. He cited the consolidation of servers by government agencies as a move that creates significant demand for cloud services and drives investment in data centres.
Public-Private Partnerships, he said, are key to co-creating, co-owning, and co-delivering data centres and digital services. “We are no longer looking at IT from the perspective of infrastructure alone, but as an integrated system that creates value for the people,” Onumo said.
He called on stakeholders to work with NITDA to build a digital Nigeria. “If we must achieve our mission, we need you, and you need us. Together, we can make Nigeria a digitally enabled nation, fostering inclusive economic development through technological innovation.”
Onumo referenced NITDA’s _Digital Literacy for All_ programme, which targets 70% digital literacy among Nigerians by 2027. Through a partnership with the National Youth Service Corps, NITDA is deploying digital literacy champions across all 774 local government areas to train 30 million Nigerians within three years. “That is the power of collaboration and partnership,” he said.
In a keynote address on Day 2, Dr. Vincent Olatunji, National Commissioner/CEO of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, stressed the need to safeguard Nigeria’s digital economy with strong data protection frameworks.
He highlighted data sovereignty, the growing role of data centres, and regulatory expectations under the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023, outlining the benefits of compliance and risks of non-compliance.
Olatunji said data centres are now critical infrastructure for Nigeria’s digital transformation. He decried that over 90% of Nigeria’s data is currently hosted abroad, calling it “precarious for the nation’s sovereignty.”
He urged more investment in the sector, noting it is projected to reach $1.9 billion by 2031.
