By FUNMILOLA GBOTEKU

Mr Ikechukwu Nnamani, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Realty Nigeria, says major global cloud providers are bypassing Nigeria because of high operating costs, infrastructure challenges and outdated regulatory frameworks.

Nnamani said this during the National Telecommunications Policy 2000 Review Workshop organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission on Thursday in Lagos.

He said existing telecommunications regulations were created for voice and SMS operations and no longer adequately addressed emerging technologies currently shaping global digital communication and infrastructure development.

According to him, internet-based communication platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp and X have significantly displaced traditional messaging systems previously dominated by conventional telecommunications operators across global markets.

“Today, SMS is mostly used for authentication and monetisation.

“Communication has shifted completely toward internet-based platforms that were not envisioned when the policy was developed,” he said.

Nnamani questioned how regulators intended to govern emerging sectors such as smart cities, artificial intelligence ecosystems and hyperscale cloud platforms under frameworks developed more than two decades ago.

He said Nigeria currently lacked a full hyperscale cloud region in spite of maintaining Africa’s largest population and one of the continent’s biggest telecommunications subscriber bases.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that hyperscale cloud platforms are very large, globally distributed computing systems run by major tech companies that provide on-demand digital infrastructure at massive scale.

Examples of hyperscale cloud platforms are Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Alibaba Cloud.

According to him, many hyperscale investment discussions across Africa are now centred around Kenya instead of Nigeria because investors favour markets with lower operating costs and better infrastructure support.

“We must ask ourselves why hyperscalers are choosing other markets over Nigeria and what policy reforms are necessary to attract those investments into the country,” he said.

Nnamani identified high electricity costs, multiple taxation, expensive right-of-way charges and infrastructure vandalism as critical issues discouraging digital infrastructure investments within Nigeria’s economy.

He disclosed that a major Bitcoin mining investor abandoned Nigeria for Ethiopia after discovering electricity costs there were significantly cheaper than available rates within the Nigerian market.

The Digital Realty boss added that poor access to affordable financing remained another major obstacle because infrastructure projects could not survive commercial lending rates approaching 30 per cent annually.

He said Nigeria also risked widening digital inequality because most critical digital infrastructure remained concentrated in Lagos, while several other regions continued experiencing weak connectivity and poor technology investments.

Nnamani expressed optimism that the ongoing telecommunications policy review would modernise regulations, improve investment conditions and strengthen Nigeria’s position within Africa’s growing digital economy ecosystem.(NAN)