Emma Okonji commends the Central Bank of Nigeria for kickstarting the process of migrating its payments transaction data currently being hosted outside of the country, with the intent to host such data in Nigeria to ensure national data sovereignty The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on June 15, 2026, issued a circular requiring financial institutions and fintech companies operating in Nigeria to migrate their payments transaction data generated within Nigeria, but stored and hosted outside of Nigeria.The circular mandated all financial institutions and fintech companies to migrate such data back to Nigeria for local hosting and management in Nigeria with full compliance set for 1st of January, 2027.Since the circular was issued, not many fintech companies saw the need for data migration. They are of the view that it will not be possible to migrate such data back to Nigeria, for fear of losing sensitive data in the process of migration. Some are skeptical, raising further fears about insecurity in the country, and the possibility of losing sensitive data to national insecurity. While some financial institutions doubt the competency of local data centres in Nigeria to host their sensitive payments transaction data in Nigeria, others are planning to migrate only few data back to Nigeria, and still keep the bulk of their application data running outside of Nigeria, just to obey the CBN’s directive.But the CBN, last week in Lagos, issued a policy statement during the ‘CloudReady Nigeria Financial Services Roundtable’, organised by Africa Hyperscalers, warning that the January 1, 2027 deadline for data migration and localisation was not negotiable and that it would not extend the compliance date beyond the January 1, 2027 deadline.CBN however surprised operators, when it said as a regulator, it also had some of its sensitive payments transaction data currently being hosted outside of Nigeria, but that it has commenced the process of migrating such data back to Nigeria, to be hosted locally in Nigeria. CBN Directive/WarningFour months after CBN issued a circular, directing all financial institutions and fintech companies to migrate their payments transaction data to Nigeria for local hosting, the financial sector regulator, last week in Lagos, reaffirmed its decision to begin the enforcement process to ensure full compliance of the directive. According to CBN, the January 1, 2027 deadline remains unchanged. The Director, Payments Systems Supervision Department, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Rakiya Opemi Yusuf, said this in her welcome address, during the ‘CloudReady Nigeria Financial Services Roundtable’, organised by Africa Hyperscalers.According to Yusuf, who was represented by the Assistant Director, Payments Systems Supervision Department at CBN, Mr. Babatunde Ajiboye, “Our task is to ensure proper implementation of the directive of the CBN for local data storage and management of payment transaction data into practical, reliable implementation. The CBN circular of June 15, 2026 requires payment transaction data generated within Nigeria to be stored and managed in Nigeria with full compliance set for 1st of January, 2027.”Yusuf said: “The compliance date hasn’t changed. It’s 1st of January, 2027. So, while you go about your implementation, you must know that it has to address the full data lifecycle from creation through processing and storage to eventual disposal. This calls for a complete data audit. The practical sequence is to audit and classify the data, agree on the local architecture and contracts, then mitigate, test, and independently verify completion.” CBN Surprise MoveThe CBN has sent a shocker to all financial data processing companies that still host their data outside of Nigeria, when it threw the first shot on data localisation, as the financial regulator used itself as an example to drive home its message of compliance.Speaking at a panel session during the ‘CloudReady Nigeria Financial Services Roundtable, moderated by the Chief Executive Officer, Open Access Data Centres (OADC), Dr. Ayotunde Coker, the Assistant Director, Payments Systems Supervision Department at CBN, Mr. Babatunde Ajiboye, said: “First, let me say that the Central Bank of Nigeria is not isolated to the circular that was released in June. Most of you will be well aware that CBN itself also has quite a lot of data, which are being hosted by partners that are not necessarily in Nigeria. So, the directive is not only for operators. It’s also for the regulator, and we have put in place, very stringent processes towards meeting a timeline that we have set for everyone else. So maybe from an expectation point of view, we expect that the same zeal and diligence that the CBN has put in as a regulator and also as an entity to abide by the tenets of that circular, is what other operators would want to put in place as well.”According to Ajiboye, the CBN has heard quite a lot of comments from data operators in
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