Ahead of the January 1, 2027, directive by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), experts in the data centre ecosystem in the country have assured of readiness for data localisation.

Speaking during a forum organised by Hyperscalers Africa, with the theme, ‘From Regulation to Infrastructure: What the CBN’s Data Localisation Directive Means For Nigeria’s Digital Economy’, Chief Executive Officer, Open Access Data Centre, Dr Ayotunde Coker; CEO, Precise Financial Systems, Dr Yele Okeremi, and CEO, Geniserve, Gbenga Adegbiji, said the policy was not a hurdle, but as a critical, overdue catalyst for national sovereignty and economic growth.

Analysts believe that the philosophical underpinnings of the CBN’s directive lie in economic self-determination. They submitted that for decades, African nations have exported primary goods only to buy back processed alternatives at a premium. In the digital era, raw data has become the ultimate primary good.

Estimates showed that there are about 21 data centres (of various tiers) in the country, with 90 per cent of the facilities located in Lagos.

The number falls far short of the estimated 72 data centres, which analysts claim are needed to power a $1 trillion economy by 2030.

At the Hyperscalers’ forum, moderated by the Executive Director, Africa Hyperscalers, Temitope Osunrinde, the experts invoked the resource-based theory, which asserted that organisations, and by extension, nations with superior control over their resources inherently outperform their competitors.

Coker warned: “If you do not control your data and continue to give it out, you are returning to the flawed economics of primary product dependency.

“This is the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and AI thrives on data. If you take away data, you take away the oxygen from AI. It is time for Nigeria to domesticate its data and protect its share in the global value chain.”
On his part, Okeremi said the shift toward localised infrastructure feels like a full-circle evolution.

“Thirty-five years ago, Nigerian banks were required to host proprietary, on-premise data centres. Early technology executives had to build networking capacities from scratch, navigate primitive disaster recovery systems, such as backing up data onto physical tapes, and independently secure networks against early malicious viruses.

“The entry of specialised local data centre providers over a decade ago altered this landscape, shifting the industry toward co-location facilities where banks leased space and outsourced power and security management. Subsequently, the rise of global hyperscalers like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Huawei Cloud led organisations to rely heavily on offshore infrastructure.

“The 2027 directive effectively reverses this offshore reliance, challenging local players to recapture and scale that foundational autonomy.”

To Adegbiji, while the regulatory intent is widely praised, execution presents tangible operational risks; he stressed that foremost among these is power resilience.

“Tier-3 and hyperscale data centres require immense, uninterrupted power loads and multiple redundant energy sources to prevent failure. However, operators emphasise that engineering around Nigeria’s grid deficiencies is a refined local expertise. Nigerian engineers are highly adept at building resilience directly into generator configurations, designing backups to sustain operations far beyond the tolerances typical of Western environments,” he stated.

According to him, the true operational test lies in Day-Zero Execution, the precise moment of migration.

To prevent data loss, the experts said institutions must execute atomic data migrations, shifting legacy data into new local facilities seamlessly. They noted that even minor testing oversights can allow test data to contaminate live production environments, as seen in recent industry sandboxes.

They submitted that mitigating these risks demands absolute precision in application architecture and robust disaster recovery protocols.

Further, Adegbiji said a significant obstacle facing the transition is market perception rather than technical capacity. He said sceptics frequently question whether local data centres can match global standards.

“Yet, major local facilities already hold rigorous international certifications, including ISO 27001, ISO 9001, and PCI-DSS. Nigeria’s edge over regional markets like Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire stems directly from early CBN interventions, such as the shared services mandate, which forced the industry to build robust local capacity from the ground up,” he stated.

According to him, to meet the 2027 deadline economically, institutions must embrace deep collaboration, stressing that “financial institutions do not need to duplicate technical skills in-house. Instead, clusters of banks and fintechs can utilise shared co-location facilities and pool specialised engineering expertise across networks, power management, and cybersecurity.”

The Genieserve boss said the 2027 deadline represents a pivotal moment for Nigeria’s financial ecosystem. He asserted that by pulling data back to domestic soil, the country secures its digital borders and establishes the infrastructure necessary to train localised AI models and deploy indigenous data-mining frameworks.