The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, has emphasised the critical role of policy in driving Nigeria’s digital transformation agenda.
Speaking during a panel session at the IoT West Africa Conference themed “The Lagos-Abuja Digital Corridor: Building Africa’s Next Data Centre and Cloud Hub,” Inuwa represented by Dr Aristotle Onumo, Director of Stakeholders Management and Partnership, stated that while infrastructure responds to demand, policy remains the key driver for creating an enabling environment for sustainable digital growth.
He noted that IoT West Africa serves as a leading platform that convenes industry leaders, policymakers, and innovators to explore advancements in Internet of Things (IoT), smart cities, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and broader digital transformation.
Onumo explained that Nigeria’s broadband policy, which prescribes minimum internet speeds of 10 Mbps for rural areas and 25 Mbps for urban centres, provides a strategic framework for prioritising infrastructure deployment along the Lagos-Abuja digital corridor.
He, however, cautioned that without deliberate collaboration among government, private sector players, and civil society, large-scale infrastructure rollout would remain difficult.
The NITDA DG representative also highlighted the Nigerian Sovereign Cloud Project, saying the project aims to domesticate data hosting, lower operational costs, and expand access to cloud services nationwide.
Onumo further stressed that policy must go beyond enabling infrastructure to also stimulate demand, citing the consolidation of servers by government agencies as a major step that creates demand for cloud services, attracts investment in data centres.
In a separate keynote address, the National Commissioner and CEO of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Dr Vincent Olatunji, underscored the importance of strong data protection and privacy frameworks in safeguarding Nigeria’s digital economy, noting that with over 90 per cent of Nigeria’s data currently hosted abroad, there is an urgent need to invest in local data infrastructure, especially as the sector is projected to grow to $1.9 billion by 2031.
