The Central Bank of Nigeria has ruled out extending the 1 January 2027 deadline for financial institutions to store and manage payment transaction data generated within the country locally, urging banks, fintech firms and payment service providers to complete their migration plans before the deadline.
The position was disclosed at the CloudReady Nigeria Financial Services Roundtable in Lagos, organised by Africa Hyperscalers Company in partnership with 100 Women in Digital Infra, Open Access Data Centres, Layer3, Nobus Cloud Services and the National Information Technology Development Agency.
The Director of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Payments System Supervision Department, Dr Rakiya Yusuf, reiterated the position in remarks delivered on her behalf by the bank’s Assistant Director in the Payments Systems Supervision Division, Babatunde Ajiboye, at the CloudReady Nigeria Financial Services Roundtable in Lagos.
“The compliance date hasn’t changed. It is 1 January 2027,” Yusuf said.
The requirement was outlined in a circular issued on 15 June 2026, directing payment service providers and other regulated institutions to store and manage payment transaction data generated in Nigeria within the country. With the deadline approaching, affected institutions have limited time to review their systems, assess technology provider contracts and complete the migration of relevant data.
Yusuf said compliance would require more than simply locating databases within Nigeria.
Institutions must also ensure that transaction logs, audit trails, metadata and the systems supporting payment operations meet the requirements.
“The practical sequence is to audit and classify the data, agree on the local architecture and contracts, then migrate, test, and independently verify completion,” she stated.
She also stressed the need for financial institutions to maintain service continuity and protect data integrity throughout the migration process. She noted that meeting the local data storage requirement would not be sufficient if the transition disrupted payment services or compromised transaction records.
For cross-border transactions, institutions must ensure that records covered by the Nigerian requirement remain compliant while accommodating the operational needs of foreign counterparties.
Those facing challenges are expected to demonstrate progress, identify outstanding compliance gaps and provide credible plans for resolving them.
The CBN also called on financial institutions to review their contracts with cloud and technology providers to determine where their data is stored, how it is processed and backed up, and whether existing arrangements comply with the new requirements.
The deadline was discussed as part of Nigeria’s broader efforts to strengthen digital sovereignty and develop local infrastructure capable of supporting sensitive financial operations.
