NITDA calls for unified African tech regulation to boost investment
NITDA’s Director-General Kashifu Abdullahi urged African governments to adopt a unified regulatory approach for technology, speaking at the ITW Data Cloud Africa 2026 event in Nairobi, Kenya on Tuesday. He warned that fragmented systems requiring approvals from multiple agencies delay projects and discourage investment, and called for a single regulatory interface to speed licensing and give investors certainty over timelines.
Abdullahi said emerging technologies like AI, cloud infrastructure and high-density data centres have rendered traditional siloed regulation inadequate. NITDA is pioneering a horizontal co‑regulation model where the agency sets broad technology standards that sector‑specific regulators—such as the Central Bank of Nigeria—can adopt and adapt. He pointed to the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative (NSCI), signed in August, as a framework for trusted cloud adoption, digital sovereignty and infrastructure assurance that can be applied across sectors.
He also advocated a coordinated African framework for cross‑border data exchange based on interoperability, mutual recognition of standards and unified security protocols, noting that clear data classification would aid interoperability and build trust among regulators and businesses.
Beyond coordination, Abdullahi argued that regulation should focus on market creation, local capacity building and long‑term investment rather than revenue collection or strict enforcement, urging governments to give tech firms room to scale.
For investors and tech firms operating in Africa, this push could mean fewer administrative hurdles and more predictable project timelines. Stakeholders may want to monitor NITDA’s NSCI and related policy developments as they shape the continent’s digital investment landscape.