GBB Partners NITDA To Provide Subsidised Sovereign Cloud Services For Nigerian Startups

By Angeline Mgbele, Bureau Chief, Northern Nigeria

Nigeria’s foremost ICT infrastructure and shared services provider, Galaxy Backbone Limited (GBB), has announced a strategic partnership with the division of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI),to provide subsidised sovereign cloud services to startups participating in the iHatch programme.

According to a joint statement  from the Head of Corporate Communications

Galaxy Backbone Limited, Chidi Okpala and the Director of Corporate Communications & Media Relations at the National Information Technology Development Agency, Hajia Hadiza Umar, respectively.

Cyber Era NG understands that this collaboration comes at a pivotal moment in Nigeria’s digital evolution, as the nation intensifies its focus on data sovereignty, digital inclusion, and indigenous innovation. Through this partnership, participating startups will be onboarded to the Galaxy Cloud Platform (GxCP), GBB’s sovereign cloud infrastructure powered by Uptime-certified Tier III and Tier IV data centres, a robust nationwide fibre network, and advanced cybersecurity capabilities.

Speaking on the initiative, the Director-General of NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, highlighted that the partnership reinforced the Agency’s commitment to nurturing a resilient and globally competitive startup ecosystem by providing access to critical digital infrastructure. In the same vein, the MD/CEO of GBB, Professor Ibrahim Adeyanju, emphasised that the programme was designed to empower startups with access to secure, enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure at highly subsidised rates, enabling them to build, innovate, and scale while hosting their data locally within Nigeria, ultimately strengthening the country’s digital sovereignty and economic resilience.

To ensure long-term impact and sustainability, GBB will implement a tiered, milestone-based support model in which cloud credits are released in phases aligned with each startup’s growth journey—Build, Validate, and Scale. These credits are to be utilised within a 12-month period, after which startups will transition to standard subscription or pay-as-you-go billing models.

Further strengthening the initiative, GBB will deploy a dedicated Startup Success Team to guide onboarding and drive adoption. Startups will also benefit from automated usage monitoring and alerts to ensure optimal resource utilisation. Notably, all post-credit billing will be conducted in Nigerian Naira, shielding startups from foreign exchange volatility and enhancing financial predictability.

Commenting on the broader impact of the initiative, General Manager, Strategic Partnerships at GBB, Abdul Malik Suleiman, noted that the collaboration represented a deliberate effort to bridge the gap between infrastructure and innovation by making world-class cloud services more accessible to Nigerian startups. Similarly, the National Coordinator of ONDI, Victoria Fabunmi, underscored that integrating GBB’s sovereign cloud infrastructure into the iHatch programme significantly enhanced the capacity of startups to move from ideation to scale, while ensuring they were equipped with the right digital tools to compete both locally and globally.