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By Chinenye Anuforo
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Banks and fintech companies are seeking a phased approach to the migration of the country’s payment data into local infrastructure as the January 2027 deadline set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) draws closer.
The stakeholders said a gradual migration, backed by clearer technical guidelines and defined implementation milestones, would help the financial services industry comply with the directive without disrupting banking services, payment transactions and customer experience.
They spoke during a panel session titled “Data Localisation, Security & Future of Payments in Nigeria,” at the inaugural GrowthX by Techeconomy conference in Lagos, recently.
The CBN had directed banks, fintech companies, mobile money operators and other licensed payment operators to domicile payment transaction data generated in Nigeria locally from January 1, 2027.
But industry stakeholders said the exercise goes beyond simply moving data from foreign servers into Nigerian data centres, with the country’s digital sovereignty facing a broader test around infrastructure capacity, cybersecurity, technical skills, connectivity and resilience.
Blessing Ehize, chief technology officer, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), said banks welcomed the localisation policy but needed greater clarity on how it would be implemented.
He called for continued engagement between regulators and industry stakeholders, particularly on technical and operational requirements that would guide institutions through the transition.
According to him, clarity on issues such as the specific categories of payment data covered by the directive and the treatment of hybrid-cloud environments would enable financial institutions to develop structured migration plans.
“As an industry, we are committed to supporting the objectives of the policy. Additional guidance on implementation priorities and technical requirements would help institutions align their plans and execute the transition effectively,” he said.
Ehize said financial institutions were already assessing the infrastructure, technology investments and migration strategies required to meet the policy objectives within the stipulated timeframe.
He advocated a phased implementation approach with clearly defined milestones.
“Nigeria has the technical capability to successfully implement data localisation. A phased roadmap with clearly defined milestones would help institutions prioritise investments, manage transition activities effectively and achieve the desired outcomes,” he said.
He added that a structured approach would support a seamless migration while preserving service reliability and customer experience across the financial sector.
Also speaking, Hakeem Adeniji-Adele, deputy managing director, eTranzact International Plc, said the scale of infrastructure and data involved made a carefully coordinated implementation necessary.
He said a phased migration would allow institutions to prioritise critical workloads while maintaining service continuity throughout the transition.
According to him, the challenge was less about willingness to comply and more about executing data and infrastructure migration efficiently while maintaining operational resilience.
The concerns highlight the technology pressure facing banks and fintechs as they prepare to move critical payment workloads into local infrastructure.
Many financial institutions have adopted cloud-based systems to achieve scalability, performance and resilience, raising questions about how local infrastructure will deliver comparable or better capacity.
Ehize said banks would need to carefully rethink their technology architecture to ensure that localisation did not result in reduced service quality.
“Now if we are coming back we need to first understand how we architect for the kind of performance our consumers and our customers are looking for. Because not necessarily that they are looking for anything less than what we have. So they are asking for more,” he said.
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Dr Krishnan Ranganath, chief executive officer, UniCloud Africa, said Nigeria’s digital sovereignty should not be reduced to the physical location of its servers.
He identified control, capability and choice as the three pillars of genuine digital sovereignty.
“Digital sovereignty, from my own perspective, shouldn’t be, generally, people just think it’s just having your data stored in a server, either in Vegas or Abuja,” Ranganath said.
He said Nigerian institutions must be able to determine how critical digital infrastructure is controlled and operated.
“Secondly, I talk about capability. So, sovereignty without skill is what I call sovereignty on paper,” he said.
Ranganath warned that Nigeria could have critical infrastructure physically located within the country and still remain dependent on foreign expertise if it lacked the skills to operate and secure such infrastructure.
He also stressed that digital sovereignty should not prevent Nigeria from working with international technology providers.
“We should be able to decide which global partners we want to equally work with. It shouldn’t be that it is being forced on you and you have no other options,” he said.
Ranganath said the growth of local data centres and Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), alongside government policies aimed at strengthening domestic digital infrastructure, showed that Nigeria was making progress.
However, he stressed the need to deepen local technical capacity.
Roseline Ilori, founder and chief executive officer, Bridge57 Solutions, warned that data localisation would not automatically eliminate cybersecurity threats.
“Localisation of our data is very important but the fact that we are localising data does not mean we are also localising cyber security,” she said.
“If we localise vulnerability, the fact that it is now local does not mean it is no longer there.”
She said organisations must maintain strong cybersecurity controls, including multi-factor authentication and access management, while adhering to globally recognised security standards.
Ilori also cautioned against compromising citizens’ privacy in the push for data localisation.
“Now our data is local, does it mean the government can just request for any data because it is just there? Should we just have access? We should not trade that for the privacy of the citizens,” she said.
The panel also highlighted the importance of reliable connectivity, adequate computing capacity, resilient data centres, cybersecurity controls and skilled manpower.
Ranganath said certifications and standards could establish minimum requirements for data-centre and cloud operators, but stressed that trust would ultimately depend on consistent performance.
“Trust is earned over time,” he said.
As the January 2027 deadline approaches, stakeholders called for sustained engagement between the CBN, financial institutions, technology providers and other industry players to ensure that Nigeria’s data localisation drive strengthens rather than undermines the reliability, security and performance of the country’s digital economy.
