The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has reiterated that it will continue to facilitate and support its licensees, as major stakeholders, to continue to explore additional frontiers of expansion and greater opportunities for investment within the data centre space, whilst ensuring strict adherence to data protection.
The NCC former Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta who made this known at the 4th Telecommunication Sector Sustainable Forum in Lagos recently, said the Commission would also ensure data centres not only operates to guarantee national Digital sovereignty, but are able to prioritize contents reflecting the cultural norms, contexts and ideological values.
Speaking on the theme of this year’s event: Mainstreaming Data Centres in the Nigerian Digital Economy, the former Vice Chairman said Data centre services, no doubt, hold the keys to the ultimate crystallization of this new line of thinking within the ICT sector and by extension to the greater national economy of nations in so many ways.
He added, “One of such is the added impetus towards improving security and reliability of the nation’s digital infrastructure. This is in addition to the efficiency engendered by the robust economies of scale through critical resources shared and made available by Data Centres.
“The nature and functional model of data centres with special regard to its centralized architecture, with the compelling assurance that provides greater guarantee against various malicious attacks and unauthorized access to sensitive information.
Danbatta noted that Africa has recently assumed a new frontier and compelling destination for global Big Tech players such as Google with its Equiano subsea fibre cable spanning 15,000 km from Portugal to South Africa with strategic landing points in Nigeria and Namibia and expected to increase connectivity five-fold within Nigeria while creating an expected 1.6m jobs.
He also said, “Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is equally at the threshold of launching its own subsea cable called 2Africa in 2024 to connect 16 African countries at an estimated cost of $1bn. It is targeted to generate close to $36bn of economic output within 2 to 3 years of operation.
“While these no doubt portends significant socio-economic impacts for Nigeria, it brings to fore the debate around digital sovereignty and the need for national policy and regulatory frameworks to further localize traffic and data”, he added.
Former NCC Boss pressed further that the Federal Government of Nigeria has taken laudable steps to encourage and support data centres services in the country in its drive to ensure data sovereignty.
He mentioned the encapsulated in the National Digital Economy Policy Strategy (NDEPS) Pillar #3 on Solid Infrastructure which states that promote Development, Deployment of robust and scalable data center infrastructure, showing that these centres, and their potential to attract foreign investment remain massive.
Danbatta revealed that global data centre market worth billions of dollars, and Nigeria well-positioned to attract a fair share of this investment by providing a reliable and secure environment for the services they offer within a well nurtured policy and regulatory framework.
Adding that Nigeria represents an attractive destination for more investment in data centre services and operations. “The implication of such investments on jobs in the construction, operation, and maintenance of these data centres can only be imagined.
“With the commencement of the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the role and criticality of Data centres become increasing overwhelming. This is underscored by the kind of efficiency derivable when critical resources are shared at costs far significantly smaller than the actual costs of setting up such resources from scratch.
“It therefore provides a veritable platform for greater productivity and attendant national competitiveness for businesses and public sector entities to effectively harness the opportunities to be unlocked from the estimated $1.2 Trillion latent treasure within AfCFTA continental block through its 1.3 billion people”, he said.
Earlier, the organiser, Business Remarks Managing Editor, Bukola Olanrewaju during her opening speech stated that the significance of Data Centers can not be overstated, which she said provide the essential connectivity infrastructure that enables businesses, individual access digital services, applications and information from anywhere around the globe.
She noted that Data Centers, alongside fiber-optic broadband expansion and telecoms towers, poised to become the new backbone of Africa’s economy growth, adding that investing in it emerging digital infrastructure necessitates profound understanding of local dynamic and forward-thinking prospective.
Telecoms Sector Sustainability Forum 4.0 themed: ‘Mainstreaming Data Centres in the Nigerian Digital Economy’ which was aimed at providing a platform to enable stakeholders share perspectives on opportunities, challenges, impact that operations of Data Centre services hold within the Nigeria’s Digital Economy.
In attendance was the National Commissioner, Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Dr Vincent Olatunji who also made keynote address while the Managing Director, Medallion Data Centres Limited, Engr. Ikechukwu Nnamani virtually made a Paper Presentation titled: Overview of Data Centre Industry in Nigeria ICT space, and the Panel Session is left out with Dr Ayotunde Coker among others.