NITDA moves to certify cloud providers as banks face January deadline
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NITDA moves to certify cloud providers as banks face January deadline
By Alabidun Shuaib AbdulRahman
The National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA has commenced moves to certify cloud service providers and system integrators as financial institutions prepare to meet the Central Bank of Nigeria’s January 1 compliance deadline.
The agency inaugurated a taskforce on Monday in Abuja to drive the implementation of Nigeria’s sovereign cloud initiative, with the Director-General, Kashifu Inuwa, saying the process would ensure that banks and other regulated institutions have access to accredited providers for their cloud migration.
Inuwa said NITDA would develop an end-to-end certification framework covering infrastructure providers, cloud service providers and system integrators involved in migrating financial institutions to compliant cloud environments.
“We want you to work with us to co-design how we can certify the infrastructure providers, the cloud service providers, and cloud educators. Because we need to certify end-to-end, from the infrastructure, the cloud services, and those who will go and help banks to migrate,” he said.
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The NITDA boss disclosed that the agency would launch a portal by October containing a directory of certified cloud service providers, infrastructure providers, system integrators and aggregators.
He explained that the portal would enable banks and other regulated institutions to identify accredited technology providers as they move to comply with the CBN’s cloud requirements.
Inuwa said NITDA would also organise workshops to showcase compliant cloud solutions and build confidence among financial institutions and other regulated organisations.
He stressed the need for effective monitoring of cloud infrastructure to ensure that sovereign data remained hosted within Nigeria and that regulated institutions complied with applicable requirements.
According to him, the sovereign cloud initiative would extend beyond the financial sector, with implications for education, healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing and other critical areas of the economy.
He said the initiative would also create jobs and provide opportunities for Nigerian technology professionals to build careers and businesses locally, helping to reduce the migration of skilled technology workers.
Speaking at the event, the Director of Payment System Policy at the CBN, Rakiya Yusuf, said digital stability was fundamental to the stability of the financial system.
Yusuf said reliable and timely data was critical to effective policy formulation and decision-making, assuring that the CBN would continue to work with NITDA and other stakeholders on the implementation of the framework.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of Medallion Data Centres Limited, Ikechukwu Nnamani, said the localisation of cloud infrastructure could attract significant foreign direct investment into Nigeria’s data centre, connectivity and cloud sectors.
Nnamani said keeping cloud infrastructure and related payments within Nigeria could reduce capital flight and ease pressure on the naira.
He added that the policy would create employment, strengthen national security and improve digital services by reducing latency.
“We are beginning to see a lot of companies come to Nigeria to physically deploy and implement their cloud infrastructure locally. So that is going to drive in foreign direct investment into the country,” he said.
Earlier, the Acting Director of NITDA’s Regulation and Compliance Department, Emmanuel Edet, said the inauguration marked the transition from developing Nigeria’s cloud guidelines to implementing them.
Edet said the taskforce would bring regulators, government agencies and private-sector stakeholders together to strengthen Nigeria’s digital sovereignty and create an enabling environment for the digital economy.
