Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has backed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over its directive to banks and fintechs to host payment transaction data locally.

According to the operators, data sovereignty required countries to take responsibility for their entire data value chain, which also covers data collection, management, storage, and integrity assurance.

ALTON Chairman, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, who disclosed this in an interview, in Lagos, weekend, added that Nigeria cannot continue to outsource that task to other jurisdictions.

Oracle Intelligence recalls that the CBN had, last week, directed banks, fintechs, and other payment service providers to store their payment transaction data in Nigeria on local servers as from January 1, 2027.

The directive forms part of measures aimed at strengthening oversight of the country’s rapidly growing digital payments ecosystem.

“We cannot continue to outsource that to other jurisdictions.

“The more we host our data locally, the better for us,” Mr. Adebayo said.

Adebayo said local hosting would enable Nigeria to manage data end-to-end and guarantee the integrity of critical information.

He noted that hosting payment data outside the country increased communication requirements, latency, and retrieval costs.

“For every transaction involving data hosted outside our shores, communication has to take place from your location to the host and back.

“It increases latency and also increases the cost of data retrieval,” he said.

The ALTON chairman described the directive as an important first step toward achieving national data sovereignty.

He also dismissed concerns about infrastructure readiness, saying Nigeria already had significant data center capacity.

According to him, several Nigerian-owned facilities currently host data for organisations operating from other jurisdictions.

“I’m happy to say that we have a lot of data centres owned and managed by Nigerians that are hosting data from other jurisdictions.

“If people overseas can host their data here, why can’t we host our own data here?” he queried.

Adebayo argued that local hosting would reduce dependence on foreign infrastructure while improving national control over data security.

He said concerns about security and reliability should not justify continued reliance on foreign hosting providers.

“No one can protect your house better than yourself.

“You have more at stake in terms of security and safety than somebody else hosting your data,” he said.

The telecom industry leader also highlighted the cost implications of local hosting.

He said organisations that host data locally would pay in local currency rather than foreign currency.

According to him, this would help reduce exposure to exchange rate pressures and lower long-term operating costs.

Adebayo said Nigeria currently has about six Tier III data centres, with additional facilities under development.

He, however, stressed that capacity was more important than the number of facilities.

“It’s not just about the numbers; it’s about the capacity of what they can host.

“So far, we can,” he said.

He urged stakeholders to accelerate efforts toward domestic data hosting and management.

“The earlier we begin to domesticate our data hosting and data management, the better for us,” Adebayo added.