National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has promised to align the implementation of the Nigeria Cloud Computing Policy (NCCP) and the Guidelines for Nigerian Content Development in ICT to support Galaxy Backbone Limited (GBB) in its partnership with the cloud services & storage partner, Zadara.
The Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi said this on Tuesday, July 27, 2021 while delivering a keynote address at a webinar tagged: Cloud Services & The Journey Towards A Digital Economy’ which was organized by the two partners; GBB and Zadara.
The DG said that Nigeria Cloud Computing Policy encourages a cloud-first strategy in government.
“Its goals are to ensure a significant increase in the adoption of Cloud Computing among Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) by 2024.
“It will also provide digital-enabled services to the government and ignite growth in Cloud Computing investments. At the same time, the Guidelines for Nigerian Content Development in ICT offers guidelines for the hosting of all sovereign data within Nigeria.
“It aims to drive the required investments and build capacities for indigenous providers to thrive. Aligning your initiatives with these two essential regulatory instruments will enable you to create and capture tremendous value in cloud computing services.
Abdullahi said that cloud computing has become an essential part of business continuity and key to unlocking growth in the digital economy. Worldwide spending has gone through the roof.
“In March last year, as the virus sent us scurrying off the streets, we rushed onto our laptops and smartphones, scrambling to get online for work, education, entertainment and socialisation. We moved onto Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube and Netflix in record numbers.
According to McKinsey’s survey, the pandemic has accelerated the digitisation of customer interactions by several years, with a global adoption acceleration of three years.
“As the virus swept the globe, every fabric of our lives moved online. The demand for online services skyrocketed. At the peak of the pandemic, cloud computing played a crucial role in migrating our processes online quickly, easily and conveniently. I will never forget the day Abuja was lockdown. I rushed to my mentor and my boss for guidance. He challenged me to go and find a way to continue working remotely and get the tech innovation ecosystem to advise us on how to use technology to contain the virus, protect jobs and identify the silver lining in the crisis. We leveraged cloud solutions such a Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Docs to keep the light on and bring innovation to the government.
“Today virtual engagement is the new normal in the government circle, and we have a policy for that. Sure enough, 2020 has been a tipping point for cloud computing, and COVID-19 plays a lead role in accelerating remote work and cloud adoption globally.
“Today, cloud computing has become an essential part of our business continuity and is a key to unlocking growth in the digital economy. Worldwide spending has gone through the roof.
According to Gartner, in 2020, the combined end-user spending on cloud services was about $270 billion and is expected to increase by 23.1 percent this year to reach $332.3 billion and $397.5 billion by next year, 2022.
“Therefore, it is imperative to understand that enterprises and organisations depend on the effective use of cloud technology to enhance existing business processes and deploy new business value propositions in and post COVID eras.
The NITDA boss also listed benefits businesses will derive from adopting cloud solutions, which include:
- Reduced IT costs;
- Scalability;
- Flexibility;
- Better security; and
- Less time to market.
“It is important to note that both the private and public sectors have made significant progress in cloud adoption in Nigeria.
“The Honorable Minister of Communications & Digital Economic provides the exemplary leadership we need in implementing the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) for a digital Nigeria. And today’s event is one of the implementation’s outcomes of the Policy, which created business opportunities for you (Galaxy Backbone and Zadara) to partner.
“We are pleased with the efforts of Galaxy Backbone in providing reliable, efficient, and robust cloud services to Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as the private sector.
“This effort will accelerate our journey to the digital economy and create opportunities for growth in the digital economy.
“At the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), we will align the implementation of the Nigeria Cloud Computing Policy (NCCP) and the Guidelines for Nigerian Content Development in ICT to support this partnership”, he said.
He urged participants to explore more opportunities in cloud computing services, stressing that many promising trends to watch this year include hybrid cloud, distributed cloud, serverless computing, cloud-based disaster recovery, platform as a service, and edge computing.
