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The federal government will collaborate with Big Tech companies and Hyperscalers to establish data centers in Nigeria as part of efforts to secure the country’s data sovereignty.
The director general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, delivered the keynote address at the 3rd Biennial Corporate Governance and Enterprise Development Conference in Lagos on Tuesday, September 2.
Abdullahi stated that a new initiative will allow Nigeria to take control of data that is currently stored and managed by foreign technology companies.
He also mentioned that NITDA is implementing a cloud first strategy to attract large scale cloud providers and enhance local infrastructure and talent.
Abdullahi said, “Today we don’t have data sovereignty; our data is on social media, Google, Microsoft and others, and they decide what we see, what we believe, and what we buy.
“We are working with Big Tech, the hyperscalers, and coming up with laws that will help us build hyperscale data center capability in Nigeria.”
He explained that the government’s strategy involves classifying data to identify what must be kept within the country and what can be hosted on public cloud platforms.
Abdullahi also mentioned that Nigeria has developed the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy and the Standard for Artificial Intelligence Adoption, while simultaneously testing the Ethical Standard for Deploying Artificial Intelligence.
He added that the upcoming Online Harm Protection Bill will serve to unify online and offline regulations.
For Nigeria to fully benefit from artificial intelligence, AI systems must be retrained to align with the country’s unique culture, values, and context.
Without this localized approach, digital systems may produce outcomes that fail to account for local realities.
To address this, he revealed that Nigeria is developing its own large language models and building systems that prioritize societal needs, including data classification to determine what must remain within Nigeria and what can be hosted on public cloud platforms.
He further noted that the government’s Cloud First strategy is encouraging hyperscalers to establish data centers in Nigeria, which will also contribute to the growth of local talent.
This effort is aimed at repositioning Nigeria as a hub for data center and AI infrastructure in Africa, while carefully balancing the need for data sovereignty with the benefits of regional collaboration.
Regarding AI governance, Abdullahi explained that emerging technologies cannot be effectively managed by relying solely on existing laws or historical frameworks.
The government has thus created a regulatory intelligence framework to guide AI adoption. This framework emphasizes collaboration and the development of practical use cases before formal regulations are implemented.
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