NITDA, Budget Office Inaugurate Multi-Agency Technical Committee to advance Sovereign Cloud Implementation

By Inyene Ibanga

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF), have formally inaugurated the Joint Technical Committee of the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative (JTC-NSCI) to address key fiscal, expenditure, procurement, financing and investment considerations required for the effective implementation of the Initiative.

Chaired by the Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Yakubu, with the Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa CCIE, serving as co-chair, the committee comprises government institutions across public finance, procurement, investment, connectivity, power and energy, cybersecurity, data governance, among others.

Declaring the committee duly inaugurated, Yakubu described the assignment as addressing “an increasingly important question of state capacity,” noting that government expenditure has continued to rise as public reliance on digital infrastructure deepens.

He explained that the central task before the committee is to ensure that such investments are effectively supervised to deliver efficiency and essential fiscal value across the government’s digital infrastructure.

“Our challenge is to ensure that these investments are properly planned, appropriately prioritized, fiscally sustainable, and capable of delivering greater value from public resources.

“The National Sovereign Cloud Initiative should therefore help us to improve efficiency and resilience, reduce available duplication, optimize existing capacity, and make better-informed investment decisions,’’ he said.

Yakubu, however, said that the government does not need to finance or own every component of the digital infrastructure ecosystem. He called for an approach that mobilises private capital, competitive markets, and credible long-term demand to complement public investments.