FG has localised 90% data assets hosted abroad – NITDA

FG has localised 90% data assets hosted abroad – NITDA

More than 90 per cent of Federal Government’s data hosted externally have now been repatriated to Nigeria.

This disclosure was made by Kashifu Abdullahi, the director general of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) while delivering his paper on ‘Data localisation and its benefits to the Nigerian Economy’ at Laurr3cloud webinar series themed ‘The Future of African Cloud’.

Represented by Aminu Lawal, his special assistant on digital transformation, Abdullahi said substantial data assets belonging to major Ministries, Departments and Agencies such as the Bank Verification Number and the Subscriber Identity Module registration hosting over 40 million and 95 million subscribers’ data respectively were now hosted within the country.

He added that other databases hosted locally included the National Identity Number, the Integrated Tax Administration System, the Government Integrated and Financial Information Management System, the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, as well as the Treasury Single Account.

According to Abdullahi, the localisation of these national data assets will promote the development and deployment of robust and scalable data center infrastructure in Nigeria.

“It will further enable our burgeoning technology innovation companies to harness the big data to develop cutting edge innovative solutions that will provide insights for policy planning and development, while also creating a more efficient and effective public sector for better implementation of government’s developmental policies and programmes,” he said.

The NITDA boss also emphasized the need to drive more infrastructural investment in Nigeria’s data hosting services, especially cloud infrastructure for the success of the digital transformation journey, economic growth and prosperity.