By BONIFACE AKARAH

The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, has outlined Nigeria’s strategy for attracting investment into data centres and other digital infrastructure, identifying policy clarity, regulatory certainty, digital trust and cybersecurity as key drivers of sustainable growth.

Inuwa spoke during a high-level industry panel on “Converting Digital Demand into Data Centre Investment” at the recently concluded ITW Data Cloud Africa 2026, alongside Ike Nnamani of Digital Realty Nigeria, Wole Abu of Equinix, Temitope Osunrinde of Africa Hyperscalers and Cherotich Kiereini of Oracle.

Inuwa said government must provide clear direction for investors by setting out its strategic intentions and creating a stable environment for digital infrastructure development.

According to him, “the primary responsibility of government is to clearly establish strategic intentions,” creating a framework that gives investors a clear understanding of what needs to be built while supporting growth across the technology sector.

He said regulatory certainty was equally important because investors needed confidence about how digital infrastructure would be deployed, governed and consumed within the Nigerian market.

Inuwa said that by providing investors with “full regulatory certainty,” government would enable operators to build with confidence and make long-term investment decisions based on a predictable policy environment.

The NITDA boss said Nigeria’s attraction as a digital infrastructure destination goes beyond its large population, pointing to the growing demand generated by localised digital workloads and the country’s geographical position.

He said Nigeria could serve as a major transit and connectivity hub for West and Central Africa, while its growing pool of technology professionals provides the local capacity needed to build solutions on modern digital networks.

Inuwa also pointed to digital trust as a central requirement for sustaining investment in the country’s digital infrastructure.

He said NITDA was working to embed security across the digital ecosystem through initiatives including the Digital Assurance Framework, the Cybercrime Act and the National Cybersecurity Architecture.

According to Inuwa, these measures are intended to create “end-to-end security across every layer of the digital chain,” covering systems ranging from individual last-mile devices to critical national infrastructure.

He further disclosed that government information technology projects are now subject to cybersecurity-by-design clearances, making security an integral part of infrastructure planning and deployment.

Inuwa said the combination of clear policy direction, regulatory certainty and strong security standards would provide the foundation required for the next phase of digital infrastructure investment.

He said Nigeria was “laying down the predictable foundation needed to power the next generation of data centres, cloud, and artificial intelligence infrastructure,” stressing that investment in these areas would be critical to meeting the country’s growing digital demand.

The NITDA boss said the country’s expanding digital footprint presents an opportunity to attract capital into infrastructure that can support not only Nigeria’s domestic technology ecosystem but also the wider West and Central African market.

He added that collaboration between government and industry would remain important in translating the country’s growing digital demand into sustainable investments in data centres, cloud services and emerging technologies.

•PHOTO: NITDA DG Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, seated among other panelists, speaking at the recently concluded ITW Data Cloud Africa 2026 in Nairobi, Kenya