CBN Data Localisation Deadline Forces Nigerian Banks Into N200 Billion Cloud Migration
A Central Bank of Nigeria data localisation deadline is forcing Nigerian banks into a reported N200 billion cloud migration, testing the sector's infrastructure capacity, talent pipeline, and fibre connectivity. The compliance drive is described as a significant reshaping of Nigeria's broader technology infrastructure investment landscape.
Nigeria Cloud: the talent gap is the real deadline
The CBN's data localisation order has a January 2027 deadline. Nigeria's data centres, it turns out, have enough physical capacity to absorb the load.
The binding constraint is people. Roundtable participants were blunt: there aren't enough certified engineers to safely move the workloads that processed N284.99 trillion in payments in a single quarter. One speaker called for the CBN to mandate certified professionals on every migration project — which implies the current situation is that nobody is checking.
A 1% failure rate on infrastructure that size isn't a rounding error. It's billions in frozen transactions. The infrastructure deadline is set. The talent pipeline isn't.
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- CBN data localisation deadline tests N200bn bank cloud spending, talent, fibre · businessday.ng · T2