Emma Okonji commends the Central Bank of Nigeria for kickstarting the method of migrating its funds transaction information presently being hosted exterior of the nation, with the intent to host such information in Nigeria to make sure nationwide information sovereignty
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on June 15, 2026, issued a round requiring monetary establishments and fintech corporations working in Nigeria emigrate their funds transaction information generated inside Nigeria, however saved and hosted exterior of Nigeria.
The round mandated all monetary establishments and fintech corporations emigrate such information again to Nigeria for native internet hosting and administration in Nigeria with full compliance set for 1st of January, 2027.
Since the round was issued, not many fintech corporations noticed the necessity for information migration. They are of the view that it’s going to not be doable emigrate such information again to Nigeria, for worry of dropping delicate information within the strategy of migration. Some are skeptical, elevating additional fears about insecurity within the nation, and the opportunity of dropping delicate information to nationwide insecurity. While some monetary establishments doubt the competency of native information centres in Nigeria to host their delicate funds transaction information in Nigeria, others are planning emigrate solely few information again to Nigeria, and nonetheless preserve the majority of their software information operating exterior of Nigeria, simply to obey the CBN’s directive.
But the CBN, final week in Lagos, issued a coverage assertion in the course of the ‘CloudReady Nigeria Financial Services Roundtable’, organised by Africa Hyperscalers, warning that the January 1, 2027 deadline for information migration and localisation was not negotiable and that it will not lengthen the compliance date past the January 1, 2027 deadline.
CBN nevertheless shocked operators, when it mentioned as a regulator, it additionally had a few of its delicate funds transaction information presently being hosted exterior of Nigeria, however that it has commenced the method of migrating such information again to Nigeria, to be hosted domestically in Nigeria.
CBN Directive/Warning
Four months after CBN issued a round, directing all monetary establishments and fintech corporations emigrate their funds transaction information to Nigeria for native internet hosting, the monetary sector regulator, final week in Lagos, reaffirmed its resolution to start the enforcement course of to make sure full compliance of the directive. According to CBN, the January 1, 2027 deadline stays unchanged. The Director, Payments Systems Supervision Department, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Rakiya Opemi Yusuf, mentioned this in her welcome tackle, in the course of the ‘CloudReady Nigeria Financial Services Roundtable’, organised by Africa Hyperscalers.
According to Yusuf, who was represented by the Assistant Director, Payments Systems Supervision Department at CBN, Mr. Babatunde Ajiboye, “Our task is to ensure proper implementation of the directive of the CBN for local data storage and management of payment transaction data into practical, reliable implementation. The CBN circular of June 15, 2026 requires payment transaction data generated within Nigeria to be stored and managed in Nigeria with full compliance set for 1st of January, 2027.”
Yusuf mentioned: “The compliance date hasn’t changed. It’s 1st of January, 2027. So, while you go about your implementation, you must know that it has to address the full data lifecycle from creation through processing and storage to eventual disposal. This calls for a complete data audit. The practical sequence is to audit and classify the data, agree on the local architecture and contracts, then mitigate, test, and independently verify completion.”
CBN Surprise Move
The CBN has despatched a shocker to all monetary information processing corporations that also host their information exterior of Nigeria, when it threw the primary shot on information localisation, because the monetary regulator used itself for example to drive house its message of compliance.
Speaking at a panel session in the course of the ‘CloudPrepared Nigeria Financial Services Roundtable, moderated by the Chief Executive Officer, Open Access Data Centres (OADC), Dr. Ayotunde Coker, the Assistant Director, Payments Systems Supervision Department at CBN, Mr. Babatunde Ajiboye, mentioned: “First, let me say that the Central Bank of Nigeria is not isolated to the circular that was released in June. Most of you will be well aware that CBN itself also has quite a lot of data, which are being hosted by partners that are not necessarily in Nigeria. So, the directive is not only for operators. It’s also for the regulator, and we have put in place, very stringent processes towards meeting a timeline that we have set for everyone else. So maybe from an expectation point of view, we expect that the same zeal and diligence that the CBN has put in as a regulator and also as an entity to abide by the tenets of that circular, is what other operators would want to put in place as well.”
According to Ajiboye, the CBN has heard various feedback from information operators by way of being apprehensive, however some desirous to comply. He nevertheless mentioned such apprehension was a mirrored image of who their companions are, including that there’s nothing troublesome to satisfy up with the deadline by way of information migration.
“We are not unaware that in the process of migration, there will be a number of issues. But those issues can be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. That doesn’t mean there will be an extension to the deadline. The January 1, 2027 deadline is sacrosanct and will not be changed. And I believe the CBN has shown that in the last three years, that when it says something, it meant it. So, there won’t be any extension,” Ajiboye mentioned, including that CBN won’t take heed to excuses from operators who might fail to adjust to the directive.
He additional mentioned that CBN would start evaluate of the directive by January 1, 2027, to see what the extent of compliance will likely be.
Operator’s View Point
Speaking at a fireplace chart moderated by the Executive Director, Africa Hyperscalers, Mr. Temitope Osunrinde, in the course of the ‘CloudReady Nigeria Financial Services Roundtable’, the Chief Enterprise Business Officer, MTN Nigeria, Lynda Saint-Nwafor, pressured the necessity for competence and resilience of native information internet hosting corporations to successfully accommodate delicate information domestically.
Addressing the problems of functionality and competency inside Nigeria, particularly in addressing the anticipated inflow of knowledge localisation in Nigeria, she mentioned: “From an MTN perspective, given our evolution into different aspects, we started out initially as a pure telecoms provider. So, we provided connectivity, but subsequently, we provided fintech services, alongside telecommunications services, and data services and we later moved into cloud services and of course we are moving into even systems integration because we believe that we are sitting in a small section of technology for everybody. Based on our expansion move, I can confidently say that MTN has the capacity and competence to manage and host data locally in Nigeria, and I say this with a sense of humility.”
According to her, MTN Nigeria has skilled Nigerians to handle very complicated engineering environments in MTN. “We have local experts, local engineers managing hundreds of terabytes of data on a daily basis. We have the infrastructure, with thousands of servers spread over 12 data centres in Nigeria, and these are managed by Nigerians,” Saint-Nwafor additional mentioned.
She suggested Data Centre operators in Nigeria to open up the markets for what wants to come back, insisting that the demand for native information internet hosting will enhance, following the CBN’s directive.
The individuals who have already made the investments in Data Centre operations who’ve paid the worth, ought to be given the chance to host information domestically, primarily based on functionality and competence. Therefore, funds transaction information corporations should imagine within the native Data Centre operators which have the capability and competence as a result of there are two issues which are required: Believing within the nation, and believing within the markets. The very first thing is the capability to make the funding and the willingness to make that funding, Saint-Nwafor mentioned.
She additionally pressured the necessity for scalability of native Data Centre operators to be able to entice and preserve the availability ecosystem.
Operators’ Readiness
Speaking on the discussion board concerning the readiness of Data Centre operators to host information domestically within the nation, CEO, Open Access Data Centres, Ayotunde Coker, mentioned OADC has the aptitude to host extra information in its services.
According to him, OADC has attained the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) certification, with the sting infrastructure and may mix all of those collectively to create an edge functionality that permits interconnectivity.
“So, it’s not just what the CBN has directed, because the banks and enterprise financial services and other financial services companies, are our clients and we have to treat clients with discipline to enable them to deliver services to their end customers.
“So, we bring in efficient growth and scalable design, disciplined operations, smarter energy. We worry about all of that stuff. And so, we have this core-to-edge structure, the big data centres and the small data centres,” Coker mentioned.
The Chief Operating Officer for Nobus Cloud, Stephen Okoye, who spoke in the course of the fireplace chat, mentioned one of many key issues that Nobus Cloud did in a different way was to construct a platform with the identical expertise that’s being utilized by the hyperscalers at this time.
According to him, Nigeria is forward of most African international locations on the subject of talent set in cloud computing and Nobus Cloud is proud to be one of many few corporations which are constructing that talent set.
“Today, we’ve not just built one in the data centres that we have. We now have three of such models running across Africa. Nobus Cloud is not just your typical cloud company selling a foreign technology. What we have, we own. The engineers that built our cloud infrastructure are in Nigeria. The engineers that manage them are also in Nigeria. From Nigeria to the rest of Africa, we are building skill sets, not just to deploy some of these things but to also maintain them going forward,” Okoye mentioned.
CEO, Layer3, Oyaje Idoko, mentioned past connectivity and cloud, Layer3 has helped banks and enterprise organisations to construct their core community infrastructure.
“We are the most resilient core infrastructure company for some of the biggest banks in Nigeria in our past 20 years of existence, and about five years ago, we invested in Layer3 Cloud. So, it’s a platform that has been running over the past five years, running very mission-critical workloads across various sectors. So, as of today, we have built a robust cloud platform from ground up, 100 per cent locally built, deployed, and scaled over the past five years, and we provide services across four major pillars,” Idoko mentioned.
“So, for a lot of our customers currently, be it the cloud customers or enterprise customers, most times, we are able to detect security intrusions of their network even before they realise that they have any sort of security issues. We can advise our customers and help them mitigate risk. So, we run a 24 by seven network operation centre in addition to our cyber security operation centre, which we are able to offer organisations.
“We’ve not gotten there yet, but we are building. We know that with time, as the workloads keep coming back to Nigeria, we will have data centres that can meet global standards, cloud services that will meet global standards, and we will have customers that will be happy because their clients are delivering value to them,” Idoko added.
Implementation Process
Executive Director, Africa Hyperscalers, Mr. Temitope Osunrinde, who addressed the difficulty of implementation of the CBN’s directive on information migration and localisation throughout his opening remarks, on the ‘CloudReady Nigeria Financial Services Roundtable’, mentioned Nigeria had already established a transparent path in the direction of sovereign cloud, including that the priority now, is what it can take to implement the imaginative and prescient efficiently throughout the monetary sector.
Osunrinde nevertheless mentioned the implementation would require clear tips, applicable information and workload classification, together with resilient infrastructure, trusted suppliers, and coordinated regulation.
“So, the objective of the forum is to move from policy to practical implementation. We want to identify what institutions must do, what providers must demonstrate, what further investment is required, and how the financial sector’s demand can support the growth of Nigeria’s cloud and data centre ecosystem,” Osunrinde mentioned.
According to him, “We strongly believe that the directive of the CBN on data migration and localisation will significantly improve not just the digital infrastructure industry or the financial services industry, but all of Nigeria’s economy at scale.”
