NCC: Broadband development, data centre services needed to achieve digital sovereignty

The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) says the country needs to intensify efforts on broadband development and increase support for data centre services to boost digital sovereignty.

Umar Danbatta, executive vice-chairman of NCC, spoke on Thursday during the fourth edition of the telecoms sector sustainability forum (TSSF) organised by Business Remarks in Lagos.

The event was themed, ‘Mainstreaming data centres in the Nigerian digital economy’.

Danbatta, represented by Sunday Atu, the head of tariff administration at NCC, said mainstreaming data centres required collective efforts to ensure they not only operate to guarantee national digital sovereignty, but also prioritise contents reflecting the country’s cultural norms, contexts and ideological values.

Atu, underscoring the import of the subject matter, said data is regarded as the new oil globally — with increasing intensity in the context of the emerging digital economy.

“Recent developments point to the limitless treasure within this space. Africa has recently assumed a new frontier and compelling destination for global big tech players,” he said.

“Tech giants, like Google with its Equiano subsea fibre cable spanning 15,000 km from Portugal to South Africa and strategic landing points in Nigeria and Namibia, are expected to increase connectivity more than five-fold within Nigeria while creating an expected 1.6 million jobs.

“Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is equally on the threshold of launching its own subsea cable called 2Africa in 2024 to connect 16 African countries at an estimated cost of 1 billion dollars.

“It is targeted to generate close to $36 billion of economic output within two to three years of operation.

“While these, no doubt, portend significant socio-economic impacts for Nigeria, they bring to the fore the debate around digital sovereignty and the need for national policy and regulatory frameworks to further localise traffic and data.”

Danbatta said the global data centre market is worth billions of dollars, and Nigeria is well-positioned to attract a fair share of this investment.

He stressed that by providing a reliable and secure environment for the services they offer within a well-nurtured policy and regulatory framework, Nigeria would represent an attractive destination for more investment in data centre services and operations.

“With the commencement of the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the role and critical nature of data centres become increasing overwhelming,” he added.

In her remarks, Bukola Olanrewaju, convener of TSSF, said data centres play a pivotal role in the digital era and are beyond data storage and accessibility.

According to Olanrewaju, data centres underpin the digital world, fuelling economic growth, environmental sustainability and data security.

Olanrewaju said there are currently only 86 colocation data centres in 15 African countries, with the majority concentrated in the big four African countries: South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, and Kenya.