NITDA Pushes Single Regulatory Interface To Attract Digital Investment

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has called for a unified regulatory interface across government agencies to reduce overlapping mandates, licensing delays and regulatory uncertainty that could undermine investment in Nigeria’s digital infrastructure.

The NITDA director-general, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, made the call during a regulatory roundtable on “Regulations that Build: Aligning Policy and Digital Infrastructure Investment Priorities” at the ITW Data Cloud Africa 2026 event.

Inuwa said investors, particularly those seeking to deploy large-scale digital infrastructure, should not have to navigate a fragmented regulatory system involving multiple agencies with overlapping responsibilities. He argued that government agencies must coordinate internally and present businesses with a single, predictable regulatory interface.

According to him, such an arrangement would eliminate duplication, speed up licensing approvals and provide investors with clearer timelines for establishing and expanding digital infrastructure in the country. “Investors want to see the government act as a single, cohesive unit rather than a web of fragmented institutions,” he said.

The NITDA DG said the rapid convergence of artificial intelligence, cloud computing and high-density data centres has made traditional sector-by-sector regulation increasingly inadequate. He advocated a horizontal regulatory framework under which broad digital standards can be developed centrally and subsequently applied by sector-specific regulators.

He cited the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative as an example of how regulatory coordination could reduce compliance burdens. According to him, the Central Bank of Nigeria was able to leverage NITDA’s horizontal framework to issue a single circular for the financial sector, enabling banks to comply with digital stability requirements without seeking separate approvals from multiple agencies.

Inuwa also called for greater harmonisation of digital standards across African markets, particularly on cross-border data transfers. He said common standards built around interoperability, trust and security could enable countries to recognise each other’s compliance requirements and reduce the need for businesses operating across borders to undergo duplicative regulatory processes.

He said clear data classification would also be necessary to distinguish sovereign in-country data from public and hybrid cloud assets. Such clarity, he argued, would help governments protect sensitive information while allowing businesses to deploy cloud and data infrastructure more efficiently across regional markets.

The NITDA chief further rejected concerns that digital regulators primarily view technology companies as sources of revenue, saying the agency’s regulatory approach was designed to support market development. “NITDA does not charge for its regulations,” he said, adding that the agency’s focus was on shaping economic behaviour, developing local capacity and attracting long-term investment.

Industry stakeholders at the session, however, underscored the need for regulatory coordination as Nigeria and other African countries seek to attract capital into telecommunications, cloud computing, data centres and emerging technologies. The panel included Nigeria Data Protection Commission’s Legal Enforcement and Regulation representative, Caroline Okafor; ATCON president Tony Izuagbe Emoekpere; Meta’s Director of Public Policy for East and Horn of Africa and Africa Economic Policy Lead, Mercy Ndegwa; and Kenya’s Communication Authority Universal Service Fund director, Eng. Dennis Chepkwony.

Meanwhile, the push for a single regulatory interface comes as digital infrastructure becomes increasingly central to economic competitiveness, with investors demanding predictable rules, faster approvals and clearer compliance obligations.

However, for Nigeria, stakeholders stressed that reducing regulatory fragmentation could determine how effectively the country converts its growing digital demand into long-term infrastructure investment and economic growth.