Chief Executive Officer of Open Access Data Centres, Ayotunde Coker.
Nigeria’s new directive requiring banks, fintechs and payment service providers to store locally generated transaction data within the country is expected to accelerate investment in data centre infrastructure, according to the Chief Executive Officer of Open Access Data Centres, Ayotunde Coker.
The Central Bank of Nigeria had ordered deposit money banks, microfinance banks, mobile money operators, payment processors, switching companies and other licensed players in the payments ecosystem to host all payment transaction data generated in Nigeria on local servers from 1 January 2027.
The directive, contained in a circular issued by the Payments System Supervision Department of the CBN and signed by its director, Rakiya Yusuf, also introduced new requirements on market structure, beneficial ownership disclosure and systemic oversight for operators in the financial payments industry.
Coker said in a virtual media parley that the policy is expected to significantly strengthen the case for investment in Nigeria’s digital infrastructure, particularly data centres, cloud services and interconnection platforms, as demand for local storage capacity increases.
