Mr Ike Nnamani, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Realty Nigeria, says Nigeria’s National Sovereign Cloud Initiative has the potential to generate a $3.5-billion government cloud market annually within five years.
Nnamani made the statement at the seventh Telecom Sector Sustainability Forum (TSSF) conference on Wednesday in Lagos while speaking on the projections and broader economic opportunities presented by the initiative.
The National Sovereign Cloud Initiative aims to strengthen Nigeria’s digital sovereignty by promoting the local hosting of government data and critical digital services. It is expected to reduce reliance on foreign infrastructure, attract private-sector investment, create jobs and support the growth of Nigeria’s cloud computing and data-centre industries.
According to Nnamani, the projected market offers an opportunity to keep government technology spending within the country while driving investment in data centres, cloud services and allied sectors.
He noted that only about 30 per cent of the approximately 1,000 government agencies currently use cloud services, with annual spending estimated at about $1 billion. If the remaining 70 per cent migrated to cloud services within five years, annual government spending could rise to about $3.5 billion.
“What we are simply saying is let that $3.5 billion sit here. It is going to reduce pressure on the Naira, create employment and make companies local and indigenous,” he said.
Nnamani identified the development as a major economic opportunity created by the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative being driven by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
He noted that the initiative seeks to move Nigeria from predominantly using foreign-hosted cloud services toward locally hosted infrastructure, particularly for critical and sensitive data. The strategy is also designed to encourage private-sector investment by creating predictable demand for locally provided cloud, data-centre and related digital infrastructure services.
“The government is not going to run this. Government will create the enabling policies and guidelines, while the private sector will take the initiative to implement it,” Nnamani said.
He said the framework prioritises local providers where they can meet required standards, while maintaining that localisation should not mean compromising security, reliability or service quality.
NITDA is developing certification requirements for cloud providers and system integrators to ensure that organisations handling critical workloads meet prescribed standards. System integrators would constitute another emerging business opportunity by helping organisations migrate workloads from foreign cloud platforms into compliant Nigerian infrastructure.
Migration would have to be carefully managed, particularly for financial institutions and other organisations whose operations depend heavily on externally hosted critical systems.
Nnamani said the initiative also seeks to address Nigeria’s dependence on offshore infrastructure, noting that many digital services used by Nigerians are processed outside the country. Excessive dependence on foreign infrastructure exposes the country to risks because data and essential digital services could become subject to decisions made in other jurisdictions.
“Until we are able to control our data locally within the geographical state called Nigeria, the country is taking a big risk,” he said.
The initiative is designed around four broad areas: regulation, implementation, governance and investment, with the investment framework intended to demonstrate Nigeria’s potential to investors. The long-term objective is to position Nigeria as a regional cloud and digital infrastructure hub for West Africa, supported by growing demand for data centres and digital services.
Nnamani projected that Nigeria’s data-centre capacity could expand from about 50 megawatts of IT load to approximately 200 megawatts within five years.
In his goodwill message, Mr Chidiebere Nwankwo, Secretary of the Nigerian Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA), urged regulators and operators to consider actual infrastructure conditions when assessing telecommunications services. He appealed to operators to openly communicate industry challenges to journalists, saying more engagement could help draw attention to problems affecting Nigeria’s digital infrastructure and encourage corrective action.
