Starting October, Nigeria’s certified cloud register will decide which providers can handle banks’ sensitive data

Banks, fintechs and government agencies in Nigeria will soon have an official list of technology providers trusted to host some of the country’s most sensitive digital assets, as the Federal Government introduces its first national register of certified cloud infrastructure providers.

Beginning in October 2026, organisations operating in regulated sectors will be able to verify whether cloud service providers, data centre operators, managed service providers and Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure companies have been certified under the National Information Technology Development Agency’s (NITDA) new National Sovereign Cloud Initiative before entrusting them with critical digital workloads.

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The register represents a major shift in Nigeria’s digital regulatory landscape. Until now, financial institutions were required to comply with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) data localisation directive but had no nationally recognised mechanism for determining which infrastructure providers satisfied the country’s technical and regulatory requirements.

NITDA’s certification framework fills that gap by establishing a common national standard, an independent assessment process and a public register of approved providers that banks, fintechs and government institutions can rely on when selecting cloud infrastructure partners.

The timing is significant. From January 1, 2027, all payment transaction data generated in Nigeria must be stored and managed within the country under a CBN directive affecting deposit money banks, microfinance banks, mobile money operators, switching companies and payment service providers. While the directive established the obligation, the certification framework provides the assurance mechanism through which institutions can demonstrate compliance and identify providers qualified to support them.

The development could reshape competition in one of Africa’s fastest-growing cloud markets.

Nigeria’s ten largest banks spent N177.91 billion on information technology in the first quarter of 2026, representing an increase of almost 31 percent year-on-year. A substantial share of that spending currently supports cloud platforms hosted outside Nigeria, but the new certification regime is expected to influence where future digital infrastructure investments are directed as institutions prepare for the localisation deadline.

Unlike many regulatory initiatives that favour either domestic or foreign companies, NITDA says the certification programme applies identical technical standards to indigenous providers and global hyperscale operators.

That means local data centre companies and international cloud giants will compete on the same regulatory footing for business from banks, fintechs and public institutions, with certification becoming a key requirement for winning contracts involving regulated workloads.

The framework also addresses a broader structural challenge in Nigeria’s digital economy.

According to NITDA, more than 85 percent of Nigerian businesses already use cloud platforms, with most relying on infrastructure hosted outside the country. By creating an official approval system and encouraging the use of certified infrastructure within Nigeria, policymakers hope to retain more technology spending domestically while strengthening oversight of critical financial and government data.

For indigenous cloud providers, the public register could become a valuable commercial credential, giving them government-backed recognition when competing against multinational technology companies. For global hyperscalers, it establishes a clear pathway to continue serving Nigeria’s regulated sectors, provided they meet the country’s technical and assurance standards.

Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, NITDA director general, said the initiative is intended to redefine the terms under which Nigeria participates in the global digital economy rather than isolate the country from international technology providers.

“For twenty years, the digital economy of Africa’s largest market has run on infrastructure owned, operated and governed somewhere else. What changes today is not whether Nigeria participates in the global digital economy. It is the terms on which we participate, and who sets them,” Abdullahi said.

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1. He added that Nigeria was not closing its market, but publishing transparent standards that apply equally to indigenous operators and global hyperscalers, arguing that regulatory certainty encourages investment while uncertainty discourages it.

Beyond banking, the certification framework extends to AI infrastructure and sovereign computing, enabling startups, universities and enterprises to deploy artificial intelligence applications on certified infrastructure located within Nigeria.

As NITDA prepares to launch the national digital regulatory platform and publish the first register of approved providers in October, certification is poised to become more than a regulatory requirement. It will serve as the gateway to one of Nigeria’s most valuable technology markets, determining which providers are entrusted with safeguarding the financial data that powers Africa’s largest banking economy.