NITDA Unveils Strategy to Attract Data Centre Investments in Nigeria

The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, has outlined Nigeria’s strategy for attracting investment in data centres and other digital infrastructure.

Inuwa made this known while speaking at a high-level industry panel on “Converting Digital Demand into Data Centre Investment,” where he said Nigeria must translate its growing digital footprint into sustainable and bankable investments.

He identified clear government direction, regulatory certainty and secure digital ecosystems as key factors needed to encourage investors to commit to the country’s technology infrastructure.

According to him, the government’s role is to establish transparent strategic policies that guide infrastructure development while creating an enabling environment for growth in the technology sector.

The NITDA DG noted that Nigeria’s investment potential goes beyond its large population, stressing that the country can take advantage of growing demand for localised digital workloads and its geographical position as a transit hub for West and Central Africa.

He added that NITDA is strengthening digital trust through initiatives such as the Digital Assurance Framework and National Cybersecurity Architecture, which promote cybersecurity-by-design standards across government systems.

Inuwa said the measures would help support the development of the next generation of cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Nigeria.

The panel also featured Ike Nnamani of Digital Realty Nigeria, Wole Abu of Equinix, Temitope Osunrinde of Africa Hyperscalers and Cherotich Kiereini of Oracle.