Get Guardian on GoogleThe Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in collaboration with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has taken a decisive step toward advancing the implementation of sovereign cloud for the country’s financial sector.
This initiative is designed to strengthen data sovereignty, enhance cybersecurity resilience, and ensure that critical financial information remains within Nigeria’s jurisdiction.
By aligning regulatory oversight with cutting-edge cloud infrastructure, the partnership aims to foster trust, innovation, and efficiency across the banking ecosystem.
At the heart of this move is the recognition that financial data is a strategic national asset that requires robust protection against external threats. Sovereign cloud adoption will not only safeguard sensitive information but also support compliance with global standards while promoting local capacity development. Through this collaboration, CBN and NITDA are positioning Nigeria’s financial institutions to leverage secure, scalable cloud solutions that drive digital transformation and economic competitiveness.
This was disclosed at the Africa Hyperscalers-organised Executive Regulatory Dialogue on NSCI Implementation and Data Localisation in Lagos. The event brought together representatives from commercial banks, fintech companies, payment service banks, switching and processing companies, microfinance institutions, cloud providers, data centres, cybersecurity firms, system integrators and other technology companies supporting Nigeria’s financial sector.
The dialogue focused on the practical steps required to migrate critical financial data and workloads to secure infrastructure within Nigeria. Discussions covered implementation planning, cybersecurity, operational resilience, provider assurance, third-party risk and collaboration among regulators, financial institutions and technology providers.
Opening the dialogue, the Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, described digital sovereignty as a matter of national resilience and economic security. He explained that the objective is not to isolate Nigeria from global technology or require the country to build every system independently, but to develop sufficient capacity and control to keep essential services operating during external disruption.
Deputy Governor, Financial Systems Stability, Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Abubakar Yuguda, said critical payment transaction data must be stored and managed within Nigeria in line with the 1 January 2027 implementation timeline. He noted that the initiative should strengthen regulatory visibility, protect critical financial data and improve the resilience of the infrastructure supporting Nigeria’s payment system.
Yuguda emphasised that localisation alone would not guarantee security. Financial institutions and their technology partners must maintain effective cybersecurity, business continuity, disaster recovery, and risk management arrangements. He added that regulated institutions would remain accountable for risks arising from their reliance on cloud and other third-party providers.
Director, Payments System Supervision Department, CBN, Dr Rakiya Opemi Yusuf, urged financial institutions to treat the implementation timeline seriously and communicate their progress to the Bank. She encouraged institutions experiencing genuine migration or contractual challenges to submit their compliance plans and proposed solutions for consideration rather than delay engagement.
Yusuf also stressed the importance of collaboration among regulators, financial institutions and infrastructure providers. She said the transition presented an opportunity to strengthen Nigeria’s technology capacity, create employment and build financial institutions capable of operating securely and sustainably over the long term.
A pre-event readiness survey received responses from 89 organisations, comprising 47 financial institutions and 42 infrastructure and service providers. The findings indicated that 59 per cent of participating financial institutions expected to complete implementation by the deadline, while 74 per cent of responding infrastructure providers said they could onboard new financial-sector customers within three months.
Participants acknowledged that migration would require more than transferring existing systems from one location to another. Financial institutions will need to classify affected workloads, review technology contracts, assess dependencies, redesign some cloud-based applications and ensure that providers meet the security, availability and audit requirements of regulated financial services.
