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The Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, has urged Amazon to consider investing in the data center in Nigeria to support startups and other entrepreneurs.
Speaking when he received Amazon’s representative in Africa and the Middle East, Narrimane Benakcha, Inuwa conveyed criticisms regarding the enormous cost incurred in accessing hosting services from Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, and other related services.
During the meeting, the duo discussed the ease of the provision of digital services for the benefit of local fintech operators.
“As a government, we have a cloud-first strategy. We encourage even the government’s Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to go to Cloud because it is easier, cheaper, faster, and convenient to deploy your services without the stress of overhead and other costs.”
According to Inuwa, Nigeria’s FinTech market has the potential to be the next frontier in digital services due to its youthful population.
“Africa has the fastest-growing population and one of the youngest populations in the world, with the fastest-growing broadband penetration and other factors that can accelerate digital business,” he stated.
Inuwa, who said that the federal government is committed to creating a level playing field in the FinTech industry suggested that the firm could be of immense help to the growth of startups.
Speaking on its plans to improve the FinTech sector, Inuwa said that the government, through its National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), intends to digitalize all government services with 98% of broadband coverage by 2030.
He also disclosed plans by the Head of Civil Service to implement the Electronic Management System (EMS) to ensure paperless documentation processes by 2030.
Inuwa affirmed that the government, through NITDA, is ready to collaborate with Amazon, especially in building talents in the country.
“We are interested in building talents because it’s one of the major global challenges”.
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