Nigeria’s drive to localise data is accelerating investment in digital infrastructure, testing the country’s data centre capacity, power supply and readiness to support a growing volume of locally hosted financial and enterprise workloads, writes JUSTICE OKAMGBA
Nigeria’s push to keep financial data within its borders is accelerating demand for data centres, cloud platforms and interconnection services, as the country’s digital infrastructure ecosystem prepares for a new phase of growth.
The Central Bank of Nigeria’s directive requiring banks, fintech companies, mobile money operators and other payment service providers to store payment transaction data generated within the country on local servers has renewed discussions about Nigeria’s readiness to support critical digital workloads locally.
The policy is expected to drive demand for data centres, cloud platforms and interconnection services as financial institutions adjust their systems to comply with the new requirement.
However, industry executives say localisation is not simply a regulatory issue. It depends on the availability of supporting infrastructure, including data centres, connectivity, cybersecurity systems and, critically, reliable electricity.
