The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has entered into a strategic partnership with Galaxy Backbone Limited to provide subsidised sovereign cloud services for startups participating in the iHatch incubation programme.
The Director of Corporate Communications and Media Relations at NITDA, Mrs Hadiza Umar, disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja, noting that the initiative will be implemented through the Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI).
The iHatch programme, supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, is a three- to five-month intensive incubation scheme designed to help Nigerian entrepreneurs refine their business ideas through coaching, lectures and boot camps aimed at producing scalable business models.
Umar said the partnership is designed to strengthen Nigeria’s digital ecosystem by promoting data sovereignty, digital inclusion and indigenous innovation.
“This collaboration is a critical step in Nigeria’s digital evolution, focusing on data sovereignty, digital inclusion, and the growth of indigenous innovation,” she said, adding that participating startups will be onboarded onto the Galaxy Cloud Platform (GxCP), powered by Tier III and Tier IV data centres and advanced cybersecurity infrastructure.
The Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, said the initiative aligns with the agency’s goal of building a resilient and globally competitive startup ecosystem through access to critical digital infrastructure.
He noted that providing startups with secure and reliable cloud services would enable them to innovate and compete effectively in the global digital economy.
Managing Director of Galaxy Backbone, Prof. Ibrahim Adeyemi, said the initiative would offer startups enterprise-grade cloud services at subsidised rates, while enabling them to host data locally to strengthen Nigeria’s digital sovereignty.
He explained that the programme would follow a tiered model covering the “Build, Validate and Scale” stages of startup growth, with cloud credits valid for 12 months before transitioning to standard billing.
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He also noted that all post-credit payments would be in Naira to shield startups from foreign exchange volatility.
The General Manager of Strategic Partnerships at GBB, Abdul Suleiman, described the collaboration as a deliberate effort to bridge the gap between digital infrastructure and innovation.
Meanwhile, the National Coordinator of ONDI, Victoria Fabunmi, said integrating sovereign cloud infrastructure into iHatch would strengthen startups’ capacity to scale globally.
She added that the programme has already trained more than 160 startups across 37 hub partners nationwide and expressed confidence that the new partnership would further accelerate innovation and growth in Nigeria’s digital economy.
