Nigeria’s Digital Future Relies On Data Sovereignty – Unitellas CEO Smith Osemeke Declares At GITEX 2025
By Adeyemi Obadimu
At the GITEX 2025 technology exhibition held on Thursday at the Landmark Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Unitellas Edge Cloud, Mr. Smith Osemeke, reaffirmed the company’s commitment to supporting Nigeria’s data domestication and sovereign cloud policies.
Osemeke highlighted that Unitellas, a proudly local cloud company, has been at the forefront of providing secure, reliable, and cost-effective cloud services in Nigeria for the past seven years. According to him, the company was established with a clear mandate to ensure that sensitive data generated within Nigeria is stored within the country’s borders in line with the Federal Government’s directives on data sovereignty.
“Unitellas is a local cloud company. What we do is ensure that data is hosted here in Nigeria. We have invested heavily to build storage capacity locally, so organisations no longer need to rely solely on foreign cloud providers,” Osemeke explained.
The Unitellas CEO noted that many Nigerian organisations face recurring challenges with data storage, often spending millions of dollars on servers that eventually reach end-of-life, forcing them into costly refresh cycles. While foreign cloud solutions may appear cheaper, Osemeke stressed that outsourcing data management to providers outside the country comes with a significant trade-off: loss of control and exposure of critical information to external entities.
“To address this, we brought in advanced cloud infrastructure to Nigeria, allowing businesses and institutions to store data securely and locally without compromising sovereignty,” he said.
On challenges in the sector, Osemeke acknowledged that trust remains a major hurdle due to the poor track record of some early players in the Nigerian cloud market. However, he said Unitellas overcame this by adopting a proof-of-concept model that allowed clients to test services before making full commitments.
This approach, he added, has helped the company win the confidence of large enterprises and government agencies. Today, Unitellas boasts a growing portfolio of clients across critical sectors such as financial services (FSIs), oil and gas, fintech, and education, alongside its key role in supporting the Federal Government’s digital infrastructure needs.
Emphasising Unitellas’ capability in managing data security, Osemeke explained that customers can choose to apply their own security layers within the company’s infrastructure or rely fully on Unitellas’ in-house expertise to safeguard their data.
“As we continue to build Nigeria’s sovereign cloud ecosystem, our mission remains clear to keep Nigerian data within Nigeria, ensuring sovereignty, security, and compliance for both government and private sector organisations,” he said.
With its showcase at GITEX 2025, Unitellas Edge Cloud has positioned itself as a critical partner in Nigeria’s digital transformation journey, enabling businesses to embrace cloud solutions while maintaining full control of their data.
