The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has stressed the need for effective data sovereignty policies to protect the country’s economic and security interests while strengthening its digital economy.

The Director of Payments System Supervision at the CBN, Dr Rakiya Yusuf, stated this yesterday, while delivering the keynote address at the seventh CIO & C-Suite Conference and Awards Africa in Lagos.

Speaking on the theme: “Policy, Regulation and Data Sovereignty,” Yusuf said the rapid expansion of digital payments, e-commerce, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and platform-based services had made data governance increasingly critical to Nigeria’s economic development, hence the need for stronger oversight.

She said the country needed a trusted, inclusive and resilient digital economy capable of supporting innovation, attracting investment and delivering sustainable growth.

To address these concerns, Yusuf said the CBN issued a circular on June 15, 2026, directing financial institutions and participating payment facilitators to ensure that payment transaction data generated in Nigeria were stored and managed locally, in line with applicable data protection laws and regulations.

In a similar development, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has revealed that 59 per cent of the 44 financial institutions covered by its detailed survey analysis expect to complete their migration by January 1, 2027, as regulators seek greater control over the digital infrastructure supporting Nigeria’s financial system.
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Speaking at the Executive Regulatory Dialogue on the Implementation of the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative and Data Localisation, in Lagos, NITDA’s Director-General, Kashifu Inuwa, said the country needed the capacity to maintain essential digital services without depending entirely on infrastructure outside its borders.

Presenting the survey findings, NITDA’s Special Adviser to the Director-General, Dr Muhammad Aminu, said 39 per cent of the responding financial institutions reported that their systems covered by the requirements were fully hosted and managed in Nigeria.
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He said 22 institutions were not yet implementing anything, while 29 were seeking further clarification on the requirements.
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The survey also found that 79 per cent of responding digital infrastructure providers were ready to take new financial data, while 74 per cent could onboard new financial sector customers within three months.
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Aminu said the findings showed a difference between the readiness reported by infrastructure providers and the progress of financial institutions towards meeting the deadline.
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The dialogue, convened by NITDA and the CBN, brought together financial institutions and technology providers to discuss the implementation of the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative and data localisation requirements.
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Inuwa said Nigeria’s growing dependence on digital infrastructure made it important for the country to have greater control over the technology supporting its economy.
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He asked participants to consider what could happen if a major submarine cable disruption or geopolitical crisis prevented Nigerian banks from accessing critical digital infrastructure hosted abroad.
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He said ‎such a disruption could affect citizens’ ability to transfer money, businesses’ ability to receive payments and banks’ ability to process transactions.
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Inuwa said digital sovereignty was not about isolating Nigeria or building every technology locally, but about developing the country’s capacity to control the infrastructure on which its economy depended.
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He said NITDA was working with the CBN to make the financial sector the first to comply with the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative, adding that telecommunications companies, technology providers and other industry players would also be important to its implementation.
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He said the agency was developing an assurance framework and planned to adopt existing international certifications while exploring national certification options to give users more choices.
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Meanwhile, CBN’s Financial Systems Stability Directorate, Lamido Yuguda, said data had become a critical national asset as digital payments, fintech, mobile money and digital banking expanded across Nigeria.

He said the growing dependence on cloud computing and digital infrastructure had increased concerns about cybersecurity, operational resilience, data protection, third-party dependencies and regulatory oversight.
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Yuguda said regulated institutions were expected to ensure that critical payment transaction data were stored and managed within Nigeria in line with applicable regulatory requirements and the January 1, 2027 implementation timeline.
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He stressed, however, that localisation alone would not guarantee security.
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Financial institutions and their critical technology partners, he said, must maintain effective cybersecurity, business continuity, disaster recovery and risk management arrangements to ensure that essential financial services remain secure and available.