GBB, NITDA Partner On Offering Subsidised Sovereign Cloud To Startups
By Stella Enenche, Abuja
Galaxy Backbone Limited (GBB) has partnered with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to provide subsidised sovereign cloud services to Nigerian startups under the iHatch programme.
This was contained in a statement on Saturday by GBB’s Head of Corporate Communications, Chidi Okpala.
The collaboration, executed through NITDA’s Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI), is aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s startup ecosystem by improving access to critical digital infrastructure while promoting data sovereignty and local innovation.
Under the arrangement, participating startups will be onboarded onto GBB’s Galaxy Cloud Platform (GxCP), a sovereign cloud infrastructure supported by Uptime-certified Tier III and Tier IV data centres, a nationwide fibre network, and enhanced cybersecurity systems.
Director-General of NITDA, Kashif Inuwa Abdullahi, said the initiative underscores the agency’s commitment to building a resilient and globally competitive startup ecosystem.
He noted that access to reliable and secure cloud infrastructure remains vital for startups seeking to innovate and scale efficiently.
Similarly, Managing Director of GBB, Prof. Ibrahim Adeyanju, described the partnership as a strategic effort to provide startups with enterprise-grade cloud services at subsidised rates.
According to him, the initiative will enable startups to build and scale their solutions while hosting data locally, thereby strengthening Nigeria’s digital sovereignty and economic resilience.
To ensure sustainability, GBB will adopt a tiered, milestone-based support model, where cloud credits will be released in phases aligned with each startup’s growth stages ,Build, Validate, and Scale.
The credits will be valid for 12 months, after which beneficiaries will transition to standard subscription or pay-as-you-go billing models.
As part of the programme, GBB will also deploy a dedicated Startup Success Team to support onboarding and drive adoption. Startups will benefit from automated usage monitoring and alerts to optimise resource utilisation.
In addition, all post-credit billing will be conducted in naira, a move expected to shield startups from foreign exchange volatility and improve financial predictability.
General Manager, Strategic Partnerships at GBB, Abdul Suleiman, said the collaboration is designed to bridge the gap between infrastructure and innovation by making world-class cloud services more accessible.
Also speaking, ONDI National Coordinator, Victoria Fabunmi, said integrating GBB’s cloud infrastructure into the iHatch programme will significantly enhance startups’ capacity to transition from ideation to scale while competing globally.
The iHatch programme, supported by NITDA through ONDI, has trained more than 160 startups across 37 innovation hubs nationwide.
The new partnership is expected to deepen this impact by accelerating innovation and strengthening Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.
