The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), through the Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI), has entered into a strategic partnership with Galaxy Backbone Limited (GBB), Nigeria’s foremost ICT infrastructure and shared services provider, to deliver subsidised sovereign cloud services to startups participating in the iHatch programme.
The collaboration marks a significant step in Nigeria’s digital transformation, with a strong focus on data sovereignty, digital inclusion, and the growth of indigenous innovation.
Under the agreement, participating startups will be onboarded onto the Galaxy Cloud Platform (GxCP), a sovereign infrastructure supported by Uptime-certified Tier III and Tier IV data centres, a nationwide fibre network, and advanced cybersecurity capabilities.
The Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, said the partnership underscores the agency’s commitment to building a resilient and globally competitive startup ecosystem by providing access to critical digital infrastructure.
In his remarks, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of GBB, Professor Ibrahim Adeyanju, noted that the initiative will empower startups with secure, enterprise-grade cloud services at highly subsidised rates.
Adeyanju added “The platform will enable startups to host data locally, thereby strengthening Nigeria’s digital sovereignty”.
Abdul Malik Suleiman, GBB’s General Manager of Strategic Partnerships, described the initiative as a deliberate effort to bridge the gap between infrastructure and innovation.
Similarly, the National Coordinator of ONDI, Victoria Fabunmi, said integrating GBB’s sovereign cloud into the iHatch programme will enhance startups’ capacity to scale while equipping them with the tools needed to compete globally.
To ensure sustainability, GBB will implement a tiered, milestone-based model in which cloud credits are released across the “Build, Validate, and Scale” phases of a startup’s lifecycle. The credits will remain valid for 12 months, after which startups will transition to standard or pay-as-you-go billing.
The iHatch programme has already trained over 160 startups across 37 hub partners, and this partnership is expected to further accelerate innovation and growth within Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.
