The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF) have taken steps to strengthen Nigeria’s digital sovereignty with the inauguration of the Joint Technical Committee of the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative (JTC-NSCI).
The committee, chaired by the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Yakubu, with the Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa CCIE, as co-chairman, is expected to address the fiscal, expenditure, procurement, financing and investment issues critical to the implementation of the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative.
The committee brings together representatives of government institutions with responsibilities spanning public finance, procurement, investment, connectivity, power and energy, cybersecurity and data governance.
Declaring the committee inaugurated, Yakubu described the initiative as an important step in addressing what he called “an increasingly important question of state capacity,” particularly as government’s dependence on digital infrastructure continues to grow.
He said the committee would ensure that public investments in digital infrastructure were properly planned, prioritised and managed to deliver greater efficiency and value for money.
“Our challenge is to ensure that these investments are properly planned, appropriately prioritised, fiscally sustainable, and capable of delivering greater value from public resources,” Yakubu said.
He explained that the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative would help government improve efficiency and resilience, reduce duplication, optimise existing infrastructure and make better-informed investment decisions.
Yakubu, however, stressed that the Federal Government should not necessarily finance or own every component of the digital infrastructure ecosystem, calling for greater mobilisation of private capital and competitive markets to complement public investment.
He said the sovereign cloud agenda was broader than technology, requiring coordinated action across public finance, budgeting, procurement, investment, power, connectivity, cybersecurity, data governance and regulation.
“Sovereign cloud implementation is not solely a technology matter. It cuts across public finance, budgeting, procurement, investment, power connectivity, cybersecurity, data governance, and central regulation. No single institution can address these issues in isolation,” he said.
The BOF Director-General said the committee’s performance would be assessed through improved utilisation of existing assets, reduced duplication, stronger digital resilience, better value for public expenditure and increased private-sector investment.
In his remarks, NITDA Director-General and co-chairman of the committee, Kashifu Inuwa CCIE, described the inauguration as a defining step towards securing Nigeria’s digital future and strengthening the country’s capacity for digital self-determination.
Inuwa warned that excessive dependence on foreign digital infrastructure could leave Nigeria’s digital future in the hands of external companies.
“Anything about the fourth industrial revolution relies on our digital infrastructure, connectivity, and computing power. Relying on foreign services for all this digital infrastructure means we are putting our future in the hands of these foreign companies,” he said.
He stressed the need for Nigeria to develop the capacity to determine how its critical digital assets are managed, adding that digital sovereignty should give the country greater control over its data, algorithms, artificial intelligence and digital transactions.
“As a nation, we should determine our digital future. We should have control over our data. We should have control over our algorithms, our AI, and all our transactions,” Inuwa said.
The NITDA boss disclosed that the agency was working towards certifying cloud service and infrastructure providers that meet Nigeria’s sovereign cloud standards, as well as system integrators that would assist banks and government institutions in migrating their workloads.
He added that the initiative would introduce a cloud-first approach capable of helping government agencies reduce operational costs and the burden of maintaining individual data centres.
According to him, the committee would also facilitate regulatory harmonisation and create opportunities for private investors to participate in the development of Nigeria’s cloud infrastructure.
Also speaking, the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Dr. Adebowale Adedokun, described the committee as a paradigm shift towards achieving greater value for money across the economy.
Adedokun said the initiative was aligned with the Public Procurement Act and assured that the BPP would strengthen compliance mechanisms to support the success of the sovereign cloud programme and promote investment and growth in the sector.
“Our competitors are not sleeping. Nigeria cannot sleep. It is time for us to use our collective understanding, partnership, and collaboration to secure our nation digitally,” he said.
The inauguration of the JTC-NSCI marks a coordinated move by the Federal Government to build a more resilient and self-reliant digital infrastructure ecosystem while ensuring that public resources committed to digital transformation deliver measurable value.
The committee will provide an inter-agency platform to examine government ICT and cloud expenditure, total cost of ownership, utilisation of existing infrastructure, budget and procurement alignment, infrastructure financing, investment mobilisation and the broader fiscal implications of cloud adoption.
