The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has underscored the critical role of digital stability in safeguarding the country’s financial system, as Nigeria advances the implementation of its sovereign cloud framework.
The Director of Payment System Policy at the CBN, Rakiya Yusuf, stated this in Abuja during the inauguration of the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative Implementation Taskforce by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
Yusuf said the increasing dependence of the financial system on digital infrastructure had made digital stability an essential component of overall financial stability.
According to her, ensuring that critical financial data and digital infrastructure remain reliable, secure and accessible is vital to maintaining confidence in the financial system and supporting uninterrupted economic activities.
She stressed the importance of reliable and timely data to effective policymaking and decision-making, noting that the quality and availability of data were increasingly central to the ability of financial regulators to respond to emerging risks.
“The digital stability is fundamental to the stability of the financial system,” Yusuf said.
The CBN director said the apex bank would continue to collaborate with NITDA and other relevant stakeholders to ensure the successful implementation of Nigeria’s sovereign cloud framework.
She described the initiative as an important component of the country’s broader economic transformation efforts, particularly as financial institutions increasingly rely on cloud technologies for critical operations and services.
The CBN’s position comes as NITDA moves to strengthen compliance with cloud requirements applicable to financial institutions, with the taskforce expected to address technical, regulatory and implementation challenges confronting the sector.
NITDA Director-General, Kashifu Inuwa, had disclosed that the taskforce would prioritise compliance with the CBN’s January 1 deadline for financial institutions.
He said NITDA would organise workshops to showcase compliant cloud solutions and build confidence among banks and other regulated institutions.
The agency also plan to develop an end-to-end certification framework covering infrastructure providers, cloud service providers and system integrators that support financial institutions in migrating to compliant cloud environments.
The framework is expected to provide greater assurance to banks and other regulated institutions while strengthening oversight of the technology providers serving the financial sector.
NITDA also plan to launch a portal by October containing a directory of certified cloud service providers, infrastructure providers, system integrators and aggregators, enabling regulated institutions to identify accredited providers for their cloud migration needs.
The development form part of Nigeria’s broader push to strengthen digital sovereignty, protect critical data, deepen local participation in the digital economy and ensure that the country’s growing dependence on cloud infrastructure translates into greater resilience for key sectors, particularly the financial system.
