Nigeria could emerge as a major African hub for data centres and cloud computing as banks and fintech companies prepare to comply with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s January 2027 data localisation deadline, according to Open Access Data Centres (OADC) chief executive officer, Ayotunde Coker.
The CBN directed banks, fintech firms, mobile money operators and other payment service providers to store and manage payment transaction data generated in Nigeria on local infrastructure. The requirement takes effect from January 1, 2027.
Coker said the policy is already generating greater interest in local colocation and cloud services, with OADC seeing increased discussions involving fintech platforms and core banking operators. He said the expected expansion could drive investment in data-centre capacity, employment and supporting services.
Brandspur Banking News reports that Coker believes the opportunity extends beyond simply bringing financial data back into Nigeria. In his assessment, the country’s connectivity infrastructure and gas resources could support a much larger computing industry, including capacity for services that could eventually be exported to other markets.
OADC currently has capacity being fitted out towards two megawatts of power, while its Lekki development is planned in four stages of six megawatts each, potentially reaching 24 megawatts. Coker said the facility is also being engineered with artificial intelligence workloads in mind, which could require significantly higher power capacity.
Power remains one of the critical issues for large-scale data-centre development. Coker said OADC has invested in direct connectivity to the utility provider in Lekki and is also planning connections to gas pipelines, alongside on-site gas-powered generation capacity of up to 50 megawatts.
He said the company is targeting the development of what could become the largest data-centre campus in West Africa, while also considering facilities in locations including Abuja and Port Harcourt. Nigeria’s subsea cable connectivity and expanding long-distance fibre networks, he added, could support the wider distribution of computing infrastructure beyond Lagos.
The concentration of data centres around Lagos, particularly the Lekki and Victoria Island corridors, is not necessarily a weakness, according to Coker. He compared the emerging cluster with established international data-centre concentrations, while noting that additional facilities in other Nigerian cities would provide greater distribution and resilience.
Security and reliability are among the concerns surrounding the localisation of sensitive financial data. Coker said data centres operating to international standards can provide physical and technical safeguards, while financial institutions themselves remain responsible for designing systems that protect their data and applications.
He also said OADC has maintained a 100 per cent uptime record and has connectivity to multiple carriers and subsea cable systems. Such redundancy, he argued, gives financial institutions options for maintaining services if individual networks or infrastructure components experience disruption.
For banks facing the 2027 deadline, Coker advised technology executives to begin assessing their existing data, infrastructure requirements and migration options rather than delaying the process. He also recommended that institutions consider multiple providers, including primary hosting, disaster recovery and cloud arrangements.
The CBN’s localisation policy is therefore creating pressure for financial institutions to review where their data is hosted while simultaneously opening a new market for Nigeria’s data-centre and cloud infrastructure providers. Industry operators now face the task of expanding capacity quickly enough to meet the approaching deadline without compromising reliability, security or access to power.
