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By Chinenye Anuforo
The Federal Government is planning to extend data localisation requirements to ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs), following the financial sector’s compliance deadline, as it moves to consolidate government technology services through cloud infrastructure.
The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, disclosed this at the Executive Regulatory Dialogue on Data Localisation, organised by NITDA and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Lagos on Wednesday.
Abdullahi said the government was working with the Budget Office to establish a compliance deadline for MDAs, adding that the financial sector was being prioritised because it was the most digitised sector in the country.
The move comes as government spending on technology continues to attract attention, with NITDA’s analysis showing that 326 MDAs spent more than N3.8 trillion on technology between June 2023 and October 2026.
According to Abdullahi, a significant proportion of the expenditure could potentially be consolidated through cloud services, an approach he said could improve the deployment of government digital services and support the development of Nigeria’s domestic digital infrastructure.
He said the government, as a major potential customer for cloud services, could play a critical role in driving the adoption of local cloud infrastructure through its procurement decisions and technology spending.
Data localisation, which involves storing specified categories of data within a country’s borders in line with applicable regulatory requirements, could offer several benefits to Nigeria, including stronger control over sensitive government information, improved regulatory oversight and reduced exposure to disruptions affecting infrastructure located abroad.
Keeping data within Nigeria could also help government institutions respond more effectively to security incidents, investigate unauthorised access and comply with applicable data protection requirements. However, the benefits would depend on the security standards, governance arrangements and technical safeguards implemented by the institutions and their cloud service providers.
Localisation could also support the growth of Nigeria’s data centre and cloud computing industries by increasing demand for domestic infrastructure, creating opportunities for technology service providers and encouraging investment in local digital capabilities.
For government agencies, consolidating suitable technology services through cloud platforms could reduce the duplication of infrastructure across MDAs, improve resource utilisation and make it easier to deploy digital services. Such consolidation could also strengthen coordination across government systems, provided that agencies adopt appropriate interoperability, access-control and data governance standards.
Abdullahi said a significant proportion of government technology spending could potentially be centralised through cloud services, making it easier and faster for MDAs to deploy digital services.
He said the government, as a major potential customer for these services, could stimulate demand for locally provided cloud infrastructure through its procurement decisions.
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The proposed extension of data localisation rules to MDAs forms part of the broader National Sovereign Cloud Initiative (NSCI), which seeks to strengthen Nigeria’s control over its digital infrastructure and reduce dependence on systems that could be affected by disruptions beyond the country’s borders.
Abdullahi said the initiative was designed to build Nigeria’s capacity for digital self-determination and ensure that essential digital services remained accessible despite external disruptions.
He noted that digital technology had become integral to government operations and economic activities, making the country’s ability to control and sustain its digital infrastructure increasingly important.
The initiative, he said, is also aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s executive order designating digital infrastructure as critical national infrastructure and the Federal Government’s Nigeria First policy.
While the government prepares to extend the requirements to public institutions, the financial sector is working towards a January 1, 2027 deadline for compliance with the CBN’s payment data localisation directive.
Abdullahi said a survey conducted ahead of the regulatory dialogue showed that between 56 and 57 per cent of the financial institutions surveyed were ready to meet the deadline.
He said NITDA was working with the CBN to provide guidance to institutions that had yet to complete their preparations and to help them address outstanding implementation gaps.
The Director of the CBN’s Payments System Supervision Department, Rakiya Opemi Yusuf, said the apex bank would prioritise engagement and support but warned that institutions that deliberately undermined the implementation process would face sanctions.
Yusuf said the CBN’s directive was intended to strengthen national sovereignty over payment data, improve regulatory visibility and support financial system stability.
The planned extension to MDAs would broaden the scope of Nigeria’s data localisation drive beyond financial services, placing government technology infrastructure and procurement practices at the centre of efforts to strengthen domestic cloud adoption.
However, NITDA did not announce a specific compliance deadline for MDAs at the dialogue, saying the government was working with the Budget Office to establish one.
