The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, CCIE, has outlined Nigeria’s digital infrastructure priorities during the closing keynote session at the Datacloud Global Congress 2026 held in Cannes, France.
Speaking on the panel themed “The Role of Digital Infrastructure in National Economies,” Inuwa joined global stakeholders to discuss how digital infrastructure drives economic growth, artificial intelligence development, workforce transformation, digital sovereignty, and competitiveness.
The session, moderated by IDCA Chairman and CEO, Mehdi Paryavi, featured notable participants including Oman’s Undersecretary for Communications and Information Technology, Ali Amur Al Shidhani, and IDCA Chief Development Officer, Buddy Rizer.
During his remarks, Inuwa described digital infrastructure as a critical driver of economic growth, innovation, and national development, stressing that Nigeria is pursuing technology-led reforms under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda to diversify the economy through digitalisation.
He highlighted the implementation of the National Cloud Policy, which seeks to increase cloud adoption across government institutions while encouraging local hosting of government data to enhance digital sovereignty, strengthen public service delivery, and support the domestic cloud ecosystem.
According to him, Nigeria has also established a Technical Working Group involving ecosystem players, industry stakeholders, and hyperscalers to advance sovereign cloud adoption, formulate technical standards, strengthen governance frameworks, and attract investments into trusted cloud infrastructure.
The NITDA boss further stressed the importance of expanding investments in data centres, broadband connectivity, cloud systems, and emerging technologies to unlock the country’s digital economy potential and position Nigeria as a leading digital hub on the African continent.
He added that improving broadband penetration, advancing artificial intelligence initiatives, and implementing strategic policies remain essential for driving innovation, scaling digital services, and accelerating economic transformation.
Inuwa also promoted Nigeria as an attractive destination for digital investments, citing its youthful population, growing pool of digital talent, vibrant innovation ecosystem, entrepreneurial culture, and ongoing reforms aimed at creating a more business-friendly environment.
Reaffirming Nigeria’s commitment to digital growth, he said the country remains focused on building strategic partnerships and attracting investments that support cloud infrastructure, connectivity, artificial intelligence, data centres, and digital public infrastructure.
The Datacloud Global Congress brings together policymakers, investors, hyperscalers, cloud providers, data centre operators, and other digital infrastructure stakeholders to shape the future of global digital development and investment.
