The National Information Technology Development Agency and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission have raised concerns over Nigeria’s data sovereignty, revealing that over 90 per cent of the country’s data is currently hosted outside its borders, an exposure they describe as a major national risk.
Speaking at the IoT West Africa Conference, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, the director general of NITDA, emphasised that policy remains the most critical enabler of Nigeria’s digital transformation, even as infrastructure continues to respond to market demand.
Represented by Dr Aristotle Onumo, Director of Stakeholders Management and Partnership, Inuwa noted that building a resilient digital ecosystem requires more than infrastructure, it demands a policy-driven environment that stimulates both supply and demand.
Delivering a keynote address, Dr. Vincent Olatunji, the national commissioner/CEO of NDPC, warned that Nigeria’s heavy reliance on foreign data hosting poses serious implications for national sovereignty, security, and economic resilience.
He called for urgent investments in local data infrastructure, noting that Nigeria’s data centre market is projected to reach $1.9 billion by 2031.
At the panel session themed “The Lagos Abuja Digital Corridor: Building Africa’s Next Data Centre and Cloud Hub,” NITDA reiterated that strategic policies such as Nigeria’s broadband plan, targeting minimum speeds of 10 Mbps in rural areas and 25 Mbps in urban centres, are essential to guiding infrastructure deployment and expanding digital access nationwide.
However, stakeholders were cautioned that without strong collaboration between government, private sector players, and civil society, scaling infrastructure across the country would remain difficult.
“Collaboration is the pathway that massifies impact, while partnership harnesses collective intelligence. No one can achieve this in isolation,” Onumo stated.
Central to NITDA’s strategy is the Nigerian Sovereign Cloud Project, aimed at strengthening indigenous cloud providers and reducing dependence on foreign hyperscale operators. The initiative seeks to localise data hosting, lower operational costs, and expand access to cloud services while reinforcing Nigeria’s digital independence.
NITDA further stressed the need to stimulate demand through deliberate government action, including the consolidation of servers across public institutions to drive cloud adoption and attract investment into data centres.
Public-private partnerships (PPP), it noted, remain critical to co-creating, co-owning, and delivering sustainable digital infrastructure.
“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, urging stakeholders to work collectively towards building a digitally enabled Nigeria.
The Agency also highlighted ongoing initiatives such as its Digital Literacy for All programme, which aims to equip 70 per cent of Nigerians with digital skills by 2027.
Through collaboration with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), NITDA is deploying digital literacy champions across all 774 local government areas, targeting 30 million Nigerians within three years.
Both NITDA and NDPC agreed that addressing Nigeria’s data hosting imbalance is not just a technological necessity but a strategic imperative, one that will define the country’s digital future, economic security, and global competitiveness.
