The nation’s foremost ICT infrastructure and shared services provider, Galaxy Backbone Limited (GBB), has unveiled a strategic partnership with the Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI), reports ITREALMS.
ONDI, is a key division of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), and will collaborate with GBB to provide heavily subsidised, locally hosted sovereign cloud services to startups participating in the prestigious iHatch programme.
ITREALMS gathered that this collaboration comes at a pivotal moment in Nigeria’s digital evolution, as leadership focuses intently on data sovereignty, digital inclusion, and the acceleration of indigenous technical capacity.
Through this partnership, participating iHatch startups will be onboarded to the Galaxy Cloud Platform (GxCP), GBB’s enterprise-grade sovereign cloud infrastructure. GxCP is powered by GBB’s network of Uptime-certified Tier III and Tier IV data centres, a robust nationwide fibre network, and advanced cybersecurity sentinel capabilities.
Speaking on the initiative, the Director-General of NITDA, Kashif Inuwa Abdullahi, highlighted that the partnership reinforces the agency’s unyielding commitment to nurturing a resilient, globally competitive startup ecosystem.
By providing direct access to this critical, localized digital infrastructure, he said that NITDA and GBB are making sense of digital sovereignty at the grassroots level.
In the same vein, the MD/CEO of GBB, Professor Ibrahim Adeyanju, emphasized that the programme is designed as a mechanical necessity to empower startups.
"It provides secure, secure, enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure at highly subsidised rates, enabling Nigerian entrepreneurs to build, innovate, and scale while hosting their critical data locally within Nigeria."
This approach, he noted, ultimately strengthens the country’s digital sovereignty and economic resilience against foreign volatility.
To ensure long-term impact and environmental sustainability of the innovation, GBB will implement a tiered, milestone-based support model. Under this coordinated framework, cloud credits are released in specific phases aligned with each startup’s distinct growth journey; from the initial "Build" stage, through "Validate," and finally to "Scale."
These foundational credits, ITREALMS also gathered, are to be utilized within a strict 12-month period, after which the startups will transition to GBB’s standard subscription or pay-as-you-go billing models.
Further strengthening the initiative, GBB will deploy a dedicated Startup Success Team to guide the onboarding process and drive active adoption. Startups will also benefit from automated usage monitoring and proactive alerts to ensure optimal resource utilization as they grow. Notably, all post-credit billing will be conducted exclusively in Nigerian Naira, shielding startups from the foreign exchange volatility that often cripples young ventures and enhancing long-term financial predictability.
Commenting on the broader impact of this strategic collaboration, Abdul Malik Suleiman, General Manager, Strategic Partnerships at GBB, noted that the initiative represents a deliberate effort to bridge the gap between infrastructure and innovation by making world-class cloud services accessible to Nigerian talent.
Similarly, the National Coordinator of ONDI, Victoria Fabunmi, underscored that integrating GBB’s sovereign cloud infrastructure directly into the iHatch programme significantly enhances the capacity of startups to move rapidly from ideation to scale.
The initiative ensures that startups are equipped with the exact digital tools needed to compete both locally and globally. The iHatch programme, a flagship initiative supported by NITDA through ONDI, has already successfully trained over 160 startups across 37 hub partners nationwide.
ITREALMS gathered that this collaboration comes at a pivotal moment in Nigeria’s digital evolution, as leadership focuses intently on data sovereignty, digital inclusion, and the acceleration of indigenous technical capacity.
Through this partnership, participating iHatch startups will be onboarded to the Galaxy Cloud Platform (GxCP), GBB’s enterprise-grade sovereign cloud infrastructure. GxCP is powered by GBB’s network of Uptime-certified Tier III and Tier IV data centres, a robust nationwide fibre network, and advanced cybersecurity sentinel capabilities.
Speaking on the initiative, the Director-General of NITDA, Kashif Inuwa Abdullahi, highlighted that the partnership reinforces the agency’s unyielding commitment to nurturing a resilient, globally competitive startup ecosystem.
By providing direct access to this critical, localized digital infrastructure, he said that NITDA and GBB are making sense of digital sovereignty at the grassroots level.
In the same vein, the MD/CEO of GBB, Professor Ibrahim Adeyanju, emphasized that the programme is designed as a mechanical necessity to empower startups.
"It provides secure, secure, enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure at highly subsidised rates, enabling Nigerian entrepreneurs to build, innovate, and scale while hosting their critical data locally within Nigeria."
This approach, he noted, ultimately strengthens the country’s digital sovereignty and economic resilience against foreign volatility.
To ensure long-term impact and environmental sustainability of the innovation, GBB will implement a tiered, milestone-based support model. Under this coordinated framework, cloud credits are released in specific phases aligned with each startup’s distinct growth journey; from the initial "Build" stage, through "Validate," and finally to "Scale."
These foundational credits, ITREALMS also gathered, are to be utilized within a strict 12-month period, after which the startups will transition to GBB’s standard subscription or pay-as-you-go billing models.
Further strengthening the initiative, GBB will deploy a dedicated Startup Success Team to guide the onboarding process and drive active adoption. Startups will also benefit from automated usage monitoring and proactive alerts to ensure optimal resource utilization as they grow. Notably, all post-credit billing will be conducted exclusively in Nigerian Naira, shielding startups from the foreign exchange volatility that often cripples young ventures and enhancing long-term financial predictability.
Commenting on the broader impact of this strategic collaboration, Abdul Malik Suleiman, General Manager, Strategic Partnerships at GBB, noted that the initiative represents a deliberate effort to bridge the gap between infrastructure and innovation by making world-class cloud services accessible to Nigerian talent.
Similarly, the National Coordinator of ONDI, Victoria Fabunmi, underscored that integrating GBB’s sovereign cloud infrastructure directly into the iHatch programme significantly enhances the capacity of startups to move rapidly from ideation to scale.
The initiative ensures that startups are equipped with the exact digital tools needed to compete both locally and globally. The iHatch programme, a flagship initiative supported by NITDA through ONDI, has already successfully trained over 160 startups across 37 hub partners nationwide.
This strategic partnership with Galaxy Backbone Limited is set to deepen that impact; accelerating local innovation, enabling standardized transformation at scale, and strengthening the entire foundation of Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.
Chuks Egbune/DoP
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