DG NITDA’s representative and the Head of South West Zonal Office, Mrs Chioma Okee-Aguguo (Middle), leading other dignitaries to uneil NITRA ‘Technology ECHO’ magazine during Technology Forum on Thursday.
The Chief Executive Officers of the National Information Technology Agency ( NITDA), Vintage Confluence, and CloudFelx have made a strong case for the need for Nigeria to host its data locally while proving a road map to achieve 30 levels by 2024.
They spoke at the Nigeria Information Technology Reporters’ Association (NITRA) Forum with the theme “Achieving 30% Growth in Local Cloud Hosting by 2024”
Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mr. Kashifu Abdullahi, who gave a keynote address at the Forum noted that data is a major factor of production but for data to be a source of wealth, it needs to be secured.
He assured stakeholders in the cloud hosting business in the country of Government support in their quest to break barriers in the achievement of the 30 percent growth target of 2024.
Abdullahi revealed that there are great opportunities for the country in the cloud hosting business, adding that as a nation, Nigeria needs to locally secure its data noting that “data is a major factor of production but for data to be a source of wealth, it needs to be secured. Not only its security but also its sovereignty.”
Abdullahi who was represented by Mrs. Chioma Okey-Aguguo from the Lagos office of NITDA said that Cloud hosting provides the opportunities for 100% resource utilisation as resources are evenly distributed over several servers and cost control due to elasticity of services where pricing depends on services consumption.
He stated that that NITDA has initiated several policies and programs to ensuring data sovereignty and integrity saying that one of such was the introduction of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation in 2019.
According to him, NITDA developed the Nigeria Cloud Computing Policy (NCCP) to promote “Cloud First” as a proposition to Federal Public Institutions (FPIs) and SMEs as an efficient way of acquiring and deploying computing resources for better and improved quality of digital services.
He said, “The role of the Government is to enable the environment for private and corporate bodies to invest in local hosting services, the building of more data centres.
“There has been a considerable increase in the number of cloud services providers in Nigeria. The big names are here, I don’t want to mention names of companies so that I would not be accused of bias as a regulator.”
He applauded the initiative of NITRA for organising the Technology Forum adding that “we expect more of this kind of activities and we are always willing to collaborate with stakeholders we are always willing to work with stakeholders to address their pain point to make sure we create enabling environment for cloud services to thrive in Nigeria.
He said with strategic partnership and collaboration, “our combined effort will enhance efficient and cheap cloud hosting in Nigeria to serve, therefore, as a model for other African countries to adopt.”
“Cloud hosting provides the opportunities for 100% resource utilization as resources are evenly distributed over several server and cost control due to elasticity of services where pricing depends on services consumption. You are 100 % in control”, he said.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of CloudFlex, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should have as part of its licensing agreement a commitment from the licensee that they will be hosted in Nigeria.
He observed that the government should go beyond trying to persuade MDAs to host locally to stipulating a policy that demands that MDAs host locally, adding that the current high level of offshore hosting is contributing to the pressure on foreign exchange.
He said the Nigeria Cloud hosting market is worth between $100m – $450m (N50bn – 200bn Naira) as more than 95% of that is hosted outside of Nigeria.
The cloud market was worth $1.7bn by 2020 and growing fast. South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria are the major cloud hubs in Africa.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of Vintage Confluence, Mr. Precious Aire, 30℅ growth in local cloud hosting target of 2024 is achievable.
Cloud Hosting and Crypto-trading
While expressing strongly optimistic that 30℅ growth in local cloud hosting by 2024 is achievable, Aire said when that happens it would improve on efficiency and speed of companies such as Vintage Confluence whose dedicated service in the cryptocurrency industry depends on the quality of network efficiency for speedy response communication to the need of its clients.
He said the discussion around how to achieve the local hosting of data was timely when the need for technology-driven innovations has almost become the breadth…the live wire of business in the global village.
Aire said there is a dire need for re-iterating and addressing the adoption of Cloud hosting, which now happens to become sacrosanct in the daily movement of data usage in the present global business world.
Vintage Confluence has been an active leader and certified vendor in the cryptocurrency industry since 2019, and has been able to provide amazing exchange rates and quick execution of payment from small orders to large orders, providing a seamless interface between the trader and Vintage Confluence as its Vendor.
According to him Vintage Confluence as a company has been able to explore the required technology innovations to solve the bitcoin trading problems that formed the discouragements that some prospective investors and individuals struggled with over the years.
In his contribution, the President of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Mr. Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu, stated although there is some capacity building going on around local data hosting “with capacity probably sitting below 30%, with the Africa data centre market expected to cross $3bn by 2025, growing at a CAGR over 12%, and despite the forecast growth in installed capacity, the patronage by way of utilisation does not match the expected levels.
