At ITW Data Cloud Africa 2026,NITDA DG Champions Co-Regulation To Unlock Digital Investment

By Angeline Mgbele, Bureau Chief, Northern Nigeria

Red tape, overlapping mandates, and regulatory delays may soon be a thing of the past for digital infrastructure investors across Africa, as the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, makes a firm push for a unified regulatory front.

This is according to a press statement e-signed by the Director of Corporate Communications and Media Relations at NITDA, Hajia Hadiza Umar.

Per the statement, speaking during the Regulatory Roundtable session on, “Regulations that Builds: Aligning Policy and Digital Infrastructure Investment Priorities” at the ITW Data Cloud Africa 2026 event,  Mallam Abdullahi addressed the friction that foreign and domestic investors encounter when navigating multiple government agencies.

During the session, Abdullahi emphasised that investors wanted to see the government act as a single, cohesive unit rather than a web of fragmented institutions. He explained that aligning government agencies internally to establish a single regulatory interface would eliminate duplications, accelerate licensing approvals, and give businesses predictable timelines when entering the market.

As emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and high-density data centers converge, traditional vertical regulations are no longer sufficient. To address this, NITDA is adopting horizontal regulatory framework—broad standards that sector-specific watchdogs can build upon. Abdullahi pointed to Nigeria’s National Sovereign Cloud Initiative as a prime example, noting how the Central Bank of Nigeria leveraged NITDA’s horizontal framework to issue a single circular for the financial sector. This approach allowed banks to comply with digital stability rules without needing to secure separate approvals from multiple agencies.

Expanding his vision to cross-border data transfers and regional markets, the NITDA boss called for unified standards based on interoperability, trust, and security.  He reasoned that by establishing standardised data classifications that clearly separated sovereign in-country data from public or hybrid cloud assets, African nations coud facilitate seamless data exchange and recognise each other’s compliance standards without redundant local procedures.

Abdullahi also tackled concerns that regulatory bodies viewed tech firms primarily as revenue sources. He affirmed that NITDA operated under a Regulatory Intelligence Framework designed to enable business growth rather than extract revenues. Viewing regulation as a tool to shape economic behaviour rather than a rigid rulebook, he reiterated that NITDA did not charge for its regulations, focusing instead on creating markets, building local capacity, and attracting long-term investment.

Also with the NITDA DG on the panel were Caroline Okafor, Legal Enforcement and Regulation, Officer, Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC); President, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) Tony Izuagbe; Director, Public Policy, East & Horn of Africa/Economic Policy Lead, Africa, Meta Mercy Ndegwa; and Director, Universal Service Fund, Communication Authority of Kenya Eng. Dennis Chepkwony.