85% of Nigerian workloads run on public clouds as government pushes localisation

The news that over 85% of Nigerian workloads now run on public clouds, with only 22% of the country's 1,000 most-accessed websites hosted locally, is a stark reminder of the digital economy's Achilles' heel: Nigeria's over-reliance on foreign cloud infrastructure. This isn't just a matter of economic value being captured outside the country; it's a ticking time bomb that threatens the very resilience of Nigeria's digital economy. For Kashifu Inuwa, director-general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the writing is on the wall: Nigeria needs to localise its cloud infrastructure, and fast.

In 2019, Nigeria launched its "Cloud First" policy, aimed at moving government institutions away from standalone server rooms and data centres with high operating costs. The idea was to encourage government agencies to stop spending money on building technology and let them patronise data centre providers, both local and international. However, the policy had an unintended outcome: government and businesses moved rapidly to public clouds, without a corresponding expansion of local cloud infrastructure. As Inuwa candidly admitted, "People just started going to public cloud.. Yes, it's easier to move to public cloud, but also we need to encourage building the local ecosystem."

The government's argument for localisation is partly economic. Over 90% of Nigeria's digital data and enterprise workloads are currently hosted on offshore servers, resulting in an estimated $850 million in annual capital flight as local banks, fintechs, and enterprises pay foreign cloud providers in US dollars. This foreign-currency exposure is a direct result of Nigeria's reliance on public clouds, and it's a cost that the country can no longer afford to bear. By localising its cloud infrastructure, Nigeria can keep more of the digital economy's value at home, reducing the economic burden of foreign-currency exposure.

The National Sovereign Cloud Initiative, formalised through the regulatory instruments signed with Galaxy Backbone Limited, a government-owned ICT infrastructure and shared services provider, on August 5, 2026, is a step in the right direction. The framework sets out the policy, technical, and quality requirements for hosting more digital services in Nigeria. However, this initiative is only the first step in a long journey towards localisation. Nigeria needs to invest in building a robust local cloud ecosystem, one that can support the growth of its digital economy.

I predict that Nigeria's digital economy will rise or fall with the success of its localisation efforts. If the country can build a robust local cloud ecosystem, it will not only reduce its reliance on foreign infrastructure but also create new economic opportunities for businesses and individuals. However, if Nigeria fails to localise its cloud infrastructure, it will continue to hemorrhage economic value to foreign cloud providers, threatening the very resilience of its digital economy.

The clock is ticking for Nigeria's digital economy. The country has a window of opportunity to localise its cloud infrastructure and create a robust digital economy that benefits all Nigerians., will Nigeria seize this opportunity or continue down the path of over-reliance on foreign cloud infrastructure?