Nigeria targets $750 million investment with new national cloud policy

Nigeria is making a strategic move to become a leader in the digital economy with its new National Digital Cloud Policy. The Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy unveiled the policy on Monday, aiming to attract $750 million in private investment within two years.

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The Federal Government’s initial ambition is to mobilise 750m within 24 months, alongside progressive increases in compliant hosting capacity and the development of Nigeria’s regional cloud export market.

The policy seeks to transform Nigeria from a consumer of foreign cloud services into a hub for infrastructure, investment, skills, and digital service exports across West Africa and the broader African market. Minister Bosun Tijani emphasized this shift, stating, "Nigeria must move from being primarily a consumer of global cloud infrastructure to becoming a competitive location for the infrastructure, investment, skills and digital services that will define the next phase of the global digital economy."

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Nigeria must move from being primarily a consumer of global cloud infrastructure to becoming a competitive location for the infrastructure, investment, skills and digital services that will define the next phase of the global digital economy.

The framework supports investment in data centers, cloud infrastructure, and artificial intelligence computing capacity. It also establishes new rules for government cloud adoption and the protection of sensitive public data. The government intends to maintain an open and competitive market for both domestic and international cloud providers.

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Our approach is deliberately open and investment-oriented. We want Nigerian and international providers to invest, build capacity, develop talent and serve both the Nigerian market and the wider African continent from Nigeria.

While encouraging investment, the policy includes targeted sovereignty requirements to protect sensitive government and regulated information. These provisions will apply only to specific categories of data requiring national control, rather than imposing blanket data localization requirements on all commercial data. The policy focuses on four key areas: investment and market development, regional digital service exports, government cloud transformation, and digital sovereignty and security.

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At the same time, government has a responsibility to ensure that its most sensitive digital assets are governed and secured in a manner consistent with our national interests.