Red tape, overlapping mandates, and regulatory bottlenecks may soon be a thing of the past for digital infrastructure investors across Africa, as the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, pushes for a unified regulatory front.
Speaking during the Regulatory Roundtable session themed “Regulations that Build: Aligning Policy and Digital Infrastructure Investment Priorities” at the ITW Data Cloud Africa 2026 event, Inuwa addressed the lingering friction that foreign and domestic investors encounter when navigating multiple government agencies.
During the high-level session, the NITDA Director-General emphasised that investors want to see the government act as a single, cohesive unit rather than a web of fragmented and competing institutions. He explained that aligning government agencies internally to establish a single regulatory interface would eliminate costly duplications, accelerate licensing approvals, and provide businesses with predictable timelines when entering the market.
The Shift to Horizontal Regulation
As emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and high-density data centres converge, Inuwa argued that traditional vertical regulations are no longer sufficient to address modern realities. To bridge this gap, NITDA is pioneering a horizontal regulatory framework comprising broad, cross-cutting standards that sector-specific regulators can build upon.
Inuwa pointed to Nigeria’s National Sovereign Cloud Initiative as a prime example of this collaborative approach. He noted that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) leveraged NITDA’s horizontal framework to issue a single circular tailored to the financial sector. This strategic move enabled commercial banks to comply with digital stability rules without having to secure separate and potentially redundant approvals from multiple government agencies.
Expanding his vision to cross-border data transfers and regional markets, the NITDA Director-General called for unified standards anchored on interoperability, trust, and security. By establishing standardised data classifications that clearly distinguish sovereign in-country data from public or hybrid cloud assets, he said African nations could facilitate seamless data exchange and mutually recognise each other’s compliance standards without imposing redundant local procedures.
Development Over Revenue Extraction
Inuwa also addressed growing concerns among businesses that regulatory bodies view technology firms primarily as sources of revenue. He affirmed that NITDA operates under a rigorous Regulatory Intelligence Framework designed to enable business growth rather than extract taxes.
Describing regulation as a tool for shaping progressive economic behaviour rather than a rigid or punitive rulebook, Inuwa reiterated that NITDA does not charge for its regulations. Instead, he said the agency remains focused on creating vibrant markets, building local capacity, and attracting long-term investment.
The panel session featured other prominent figures in the African technology ecosystem, including Caroline Okafor, Legal Enforcement and Regulation, Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC); Tony Izuagbe Emoekpere, President, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON); Mercy Ndegwa, Director of Public Policy for East & Horn of Africa/Economic Policy Lead, Africa at Meta; and Eng. Dennis Chepkwony, Director of the Universal Service Fund at the Communication Authority of Kenya.
