The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in Nigeria is finalizing a framework to classify data, ensuring that certain types remain within Nigeria.
The initiative, according to NITDA’s Director-General, Kashifu Inuwa, aims to strengthen the country’s digital sovereignty, drive cloud adoption, and attract investments.
Inuwa disclosed this at the Africa Hyperscalers Digital Infrastructure Outlook 2025 event, where he highlighted the agency’s regulatory plans to support President Bola Tinubu’s 8-point agenda. He noted that the framework would encourage more cloud service providers to invest in Nigeria while ensuring data security.
AI for Impact, Not Just Large Models
On the Artificial Intelligence revolution in Africa, Inuwa stressed that the focus should be on AI applications in key sectors rather than building Large Language Models (LLMs). He stated that AI should be deployed in healthcare, agriculture, and finance to drive immediate impact.
NITDA, he added, has identified three critical areas where AI can transform governance and business: automating processes, enhancing regulatory efficiency, and improving knowledge management. The agency is committed to balancing regulation with industry growth by investing in cloud infrastructure, AI applications, and data classification.
Regulatory Approach and Cloud Policy
Inuwa also shed light on NITDA’s two-pronged regulatory framework, which includes both rule-based and non-rule-based regulations. While rule-based regulation mandates strict compliance, the non-rule-based approach allows industry-led innovation with benchmarks.
He referenced the Cloud First Policy introduced in 2019, which discourages over-reliance on physical data centers and promotes cloud computing and software-as-a-service (SaaS). Initially, the policy allowed waivers for public cloud infrastructure, but NITDA is now advocating for local data centers to scale up operations.
A key achievement, he noted, is NITDA’s engagement with global hyperscaler providers, with Google Cloud pledging to collaborate with local data centers to enhance cloud adoption.
Google’s AI Partnership with Nigeria
Meanwhile, Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently met with President Bola Tinubu in Paris to discuss expanding AI skills in Nigeria. He noted that AI presents immense potential for the country’s development, and Google is keen to support Nigeria’s tech ecosystem.
Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, emphasized that the meeting reaffirmed the government’s commitment to AI development. Last year, Google launched two AI initiatives in partnership with the ministry to equip Nigerians with AI skills.
The discussions align with Tinubu’s broader vision of leveraging technology to drive economic diversification, food security, education, and national security.