The Federal Government, operating through the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, officially introduced the National Digital Cloud Policy on Monday, August 17, 2026.
Unveiled in the capital city, the strategic blueprint lays out a multi-tiered plan to transform Nigeria’s digital landscape by pulling in $250 million in private capital within its first 12 months, before scaling to the $750 million cumulative target by late 2028.
​In a statement issued on Monday, the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. ‘Bosun Tijani, emphasized that the policy marks a pivotal shift from passive tech consumption to active infrastructure building.
​”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,” Tijani stated.
​The policy revolves around four central objectives: attracting foreign and local capital into hyperscale data centers, establishing Nigeria as West Africa’s primary digital export hub, modernizing public sector operations through an aggressive “Cloud-First” mandate, and securing sensitive national assets under targeted digital sovereignty rules.
​Crucially, the government clarified that commercial enterprises will not face blanket data localization restrictions, maintaining an open market for global providers. Stricter hosting mandates will be reserved exclusively for classified public and highly regulated data categories.
​The implementation roadmap spans three distinct phases: 1–6 months (Foundation); Focuses on institutional alignment, policy activation, and establishing baseline data center assessments.
Months 6–12 (Deployment); Marks the launch of the National Digital Marketplace, an aggregate procurement portal designed to onboard certified cloud vendors and drive the initial wave of Ministry, Department, and Agency (MDA) migrations.
Months 12–24 (Expansion); Concentrates on full-scale government migration, expanding hosting capacity, and opening cross-border cloud service channels into neighboring West African states.
​Execution of the policy will depend on a coordinated trio of government entities. The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) will oversee regulatory standards, compliance, and quality assurance.
Operational execution, shared infrastructure management, and demand aggregation fall under Galaxy Backbone Limited (GBB), while the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) will govern transparent procurement standards across all public sector migrations.
​The cloud framework directly connects with broader digital initiatives, including Project BRIDGE, which is actively laying 90,000 kilometers of high-speed fiber-optic cable across the nation and the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) program, which is training local engineers in cloud architecture, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity to support the incoming infrastructure expansion.
