Towards improving Nigeria’s digital landscape, the National Information Technology Development Agency, known as NITDA, has announced a strategic partnership with Galaxy Backbone Limited, the country’s leading ICT infrastructure and shared services provider.
This collaboration aims to provide subsidized sovereign cloud services tailored for startups participating in the iHatch programme.
According to Hadiza Umar, Director, Corporate Communications & Media Relations, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), this partnership marks a critical step in Nigeria’s journey towards digital evolution, centering on essential themes such as data sovereignty, digital inclusion, and the growth of indigenous innovation.
Under this agreement, participating startups will gain access to the Galaxy Cloud Platform—also referred to as GxCP—an infrastructure that boasts Uptime-certified Tier III and Tier IV data centres, a nationwide fibre network, and robust cybersecurity capabilities.
The Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Abdullahi stated that this partnership reinforces NITDA’s commitment to fostering a resilient and globally competitive startup ecosystem by providing them with essential digital infrastructure.”
The Managing Director and CEO of Galaxy Backbone, Professor Ibrahim Adeyanju, emphasized that this initiative empowers startups by offering secure, enterprise-grade cloud services at significantly subsidized rates. This allows them to host their data locally, thereby strengthening Nigeria’s digital sovereignty.
In a bid to ensure sustainability, Galaxy Backbone will implement a tiered, milestone-based model, where startups will receive cloud credits across the three critical phases of their journey: Build, Validate, and Scale. These credits can be utilized for 12 months, after which the startups will transition to standard or pay-as-you-go billing options.
To facilitate adoption, a dedicated Startup Success Team from Galaxy Backbone will support participating startups, alongside automated usage monitoring for optimized resource allocation. Notably, all post-credit billing will be conducted in Nigerian Naira to safeguard startups from the challenges posed by foreign exchange volatility.
Abdul Malik Suleiman, GBB’s General Manager of Strategic Partnerships, described this initiative as a deliberate strategy to bridge the gap between infrastructure and innovation.
Victoria Fabunmi, National Coordinator of the Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation—ONDI—added that integrating GBB’s sovereign cloud into the iHatch programme significantly enhances the capacity of startups to scale, equipping them with the right tools to compete on a global stage.
The iHatch programme has already trained over 160 startups across 37 hub partners, and this new partnership is set to further accelerate innovation and scalability within Nigeria’s vibrant digital ecosystem.
This collaboration between NITDA and Galaxy Backbone reflects a strong commitment to nurturing Nigeria’s technology landscape and fostering local innovation. We will continue to monitor this story as it develops.
