ABUJA, July 8 – Nigeria’s data centre industry is preparing for a major shift after the Central Bank of Nigeria directed banks, fintechs and payment companies to move their transaction data from overseas cloud servers to data centres within the country by January 1, 2027.
The directive is expected to drive one of the country’s largest cloud migrations as financial institutions move critical payment data to local infrastructure. According to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), electronic transactions reached a record ₦1.07 quadrillion in 2024, up 80 per cent from ₦600 trillion a year earlier, while transaction volume rose to 11.2 billion.
Although many financial institutions still rely on global cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and IBM Cloud, industry players say Nigeria has built enough data centre capacity to support the transition.
The country currently has about 26 data centre facilities, including 18 commercial sites used by banks, fintechs and cloud providers. Together, they provide between 50 and 56 megawatts of live computing capacity, with installed capacity rising to about 124 megawatts when ongoing expansion projects are included. That makes Nigeria the second-largest data centre market in Africa after South Africa.
Industry executives, however, say the bigger challenge is expanding local cloud computing services rather than data centre space itself, adding that global cloud providers could establish infrastructure in Nigeria, allowing customers to continue using familiar platforms while complying with the CBN’s localisation requirement.
Operators also say years of investment in backup power, fibre connectivity and international submarine cable links have strengthened the country’s digital infrastructure. Beyond supporting regulatory compliance, they believe the policy could attract more investment into cloud services, improve data sovereignty, reduce dependence on foreign hosting and strengthen Nigeria’s wider digital economy.
