Finance Law and Banking Law

Nigeria's Central Bank has introduced sweeping data localisation requirements that will fundamentally reshape how payment service providers, banks, and financial institutions handle transaction data. With a January 2027 compliance deadline, these new rules mandate that all payment transaction data generated within Nigeria must be stored and managed locally, raising critical questions about cloud infrastructure, vendor relationships, and operational readiness. This analysis examines the scope of the requirem

The Central Bank of Nigeria has issued draft guidelines requiring financial institutions with closely linked entities to maintain operational independence through ring-fencing measures. These proposed regulations introduce comprehensive governance requirements, customer fund protections, and mandate the formation of non-operating holding companies to prevent financial contagion across related entities.

Nigeria's capital market has transitioned to a T+1 settlement cycle, reducing the time between trade execution and settlement to one business day. This reform addresses counterparty risk, liquidity constraints and operational inefficiencies that persisted under the previous T+3 and T+2 frameworks, fundamentally reshaping expectations for brokers, custodians and institutional investors.