The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, has announced that the agency is finalizing a framework to mandate the classification of data, ensuring that certain categories of data remain within Nigeria.
This move is aimed at driving cloud adoption, attracting investments, and strengthening the country’s digital sovereignty.
Inuwa disclosed this while speaking as a panellist at the Africa Hyperscalers Digital Infrastructure Outlook 2025 event, where he highlighted NITDA’s strategic plans to leverage innovative solutions and regulations to achieve the Presidential 8-point agenda, which spans various sectors of the economy.
According to Inuwa, the framework is expected to encourage more cloud service providers to invest in Nigeria while ensuring data security and sovereignty.
AI focus for Africa
While speaking on the Artificial Intelligence revolution in Africa, the NITDA DG emphasized that Africa’s focus should shift to the application of AI in critical sectors rather than building Large Language Models (LLMs).
“The real power of AI lies in its application, not in building LLMs. We should focus on deploying AI in sectors like healthcare, agriculture, and financial services, where it can make an immediate impact,” Inuwa stated.
- He revealed that NITDA has identified three key areas where AI can revolutionize governance and business operations: automating processes, enhancing regulatory efficiency, and developing knowledge management systems.
- He added that the agency is committed to fostering an innovative ecosystem that balances regulation with industry growth by investing in cloud infrastructure, data classification, and AI applications.
Regulatory framework and cloud first policy
Inuwa also elaborated on NITDA’s two-pronged regulatory approach: rule-based and non-rule-based regulations.
According to him, rule-based regulation involves strict compliance guidelines, while non-rule-based regulation encourages industry-led innovation with established benchmarks.
“Before regulating, we need to understand the landscape, gather data, and remain dynamic. Technology evolves rapidly, and our regulatory framework must be agile enough to adapt,” he explained.
- The NITDA boss highlighted the agency’s Cloud First Policy, introduced in 2019, which discourages excessive reliance on physical data centres and encourages government agencies and private businesses to adopt cloud computing, software-as-a-service (SaaS), and other digital solutions.
- While the policy initially granted waivers for public cloud infrastructure usage, NITDA is now pushing for local data centres to scale up their capabilities.
Collaboration with global hyperscalers
Inuwa noted that one of NITDA’s significant achievements is its engagement with global hyperscaler providers.
He revealed that Google Cloud has pledged to collaborate with local data centres to drive cloud adoption and establish a hyperscaler data centre in Nigeria.
“Google CEO Sundar Pichai met with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Paris, where the president shared his transformative vision for Nigeria.
“He believes technology can help achieve the 8-point agenda, including economic diversification, national security, food security, and infrastructure development, with a focus on education and healthcare,” Inuwa said.
What you should know
Nairametrics last week reported that the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai on Wednesday met with Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu in Paris, where both leaders discussed a partnership to expand Artificial Intelligence (AI) skills in Nigeria.
“We talked about the immense potential of AI in Nigeria, and how we can partner to expand AI skills, enable innovation, and support Nigeria’s growing tech ecosystem,” Pichai stated after the meeting.
- The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, also noted that the meeting demonstrated the Nigerian government’s commitment to AI and Google’s ongoing support towards developing AI skills and innovation in critical sectors in Nigeria.
- Last year, Google announced two separate AI initiatives in Nigeria in partnership with the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, both aimed at empowering Nigerians with AI skills.
