CBN urged to expand oversight of fintech, cloud risks
August 24, 2026 12:57 am
Central Bank of Nigeria building. Photo: CBN
The Central Bank of Nigeria has been urged to expand its oversight of financial institutions to cover risks from cloud providers, telecom networks, fintechs and other technology partners.
Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency, Kashifu Inuwa, said traditional regulatory approaches are no longer sufficient for a financial system in which banks increasingly rely on technology providers and interconnected digital infrastructure, warning that an outage or disruption at an external provider could spread across the wider financial ecosystem.
“Financial stability now depends on resilient technology and Nigeria’s capacity for digital self-determination,” Inuwa said while speaking on digital transformation, supervision, innovation and operational resilience at the recent 15th Retreat of the CBN Committee of Departmental Directors in Lagos.
The comments highlight a growing challenge for financial regulators as Nigerian banks and payment companies become more dependent on infrastructure that they do not directly control, including cloud computing, telecommunications networks, payment platforms and other technology services.
Inuwa said regulators must move beyond monitoring individual financial institutions and instead develop visibility across the ecosystem that supports modern banking, arguing that disruptions outside a bank can have consequences for customers and the broader financial system even when the bank itself remains operational.
“We need to be ahead of the institutions we regulate,” Inuwa said. “We cannot wait for regulated institutions to submit returns before we analyse and understand what is happening. We need end-to-end visibility of the ecosystem.”
The warning comes as Nigeria’s financial system becomes increasingly digital, with payments, mobile banking and fintech services expanding the number of technology systems through which customers access financial services.
The CBN has itself been strengthening technology-related safeguards, including a directive requiring payment acquirers, processors and terminal service providers to maintain dual connections to NIBSS and Unified Payment Services to reduce disruption caused by dependence on a single transaction channel.
The CBN has also moved towards greater use of automated technology in financial supervision, including baseline standards issued in March for automated anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing and counter-proliferation financing systems that require real-time detection, analysis and reporting of suspicious transactions.
Inuwa said the next stage of regulation should go further by incorporating risks arising from technology suppliers, including so-called third-party and fourth-party dependencies, cloud infrastructure, data protection, artificial intelligence and the sustainability of digital infrastructure.
The distinction is important because a bank may outsource a critical service to a technology company while that provider relies on another company for infrastructure, creating layers of dependency that can make it difficult for regulators and financial institutions to identify where a disruption could originate.
Cloud computing is becoming a particularly important part of that equation. Earlier this month, NITDA signed regulatory instruments establishing a framework for cloud computing and digital infrastructure, alongside a National Cloud Investment Strategy aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s domestic cloud and data-centre capacity.
The agency plans to begin registration, technical assessment and certification of cloud and digital infrastructure providers through a national digital regulatory platform in October.
The development underscores the overlap between Nigeria’s technology and financial-sector regulation, as cloud infrastructure increasingly supports services that are critical to banks, payment companies and other financial institutions.
Inuwa said operational resilience therefore has to extend beyond conventional cybersecurity measures, arguing that regulators need to consider the possibility that a failure in connectivity, cloud services or a digital platform could affect multiple institutions simultaneously.
He also warned that artificial intelligence is creating a new layer of risk because the technology is increasingly being used both to strengthen cyber defences and to attack digital systems.
“AI systems themselves are becoming targets for sophisticated attacks,” he said, urging institutions to develop the capacity to use artificial intelligence defensively while protecting AI-powered systems from manipulation and compromise.
The broader shift also raises questions about who ultimately controls the infrastructure on which Nigeria’s financial system depends.
Inuwa argued that digital sovereignty should be treated as part of financial stability, saying Nigeria cannot guarantee the resilience of critical financial services without having meaningful control over the infrastructure supporting them.
“If we do not build, control and maintain sovereignty over critical digital infrastructure, how can we guarantee the stability and integrity of our financial system?” he said.
The call fits into the CBN’s broader effort under Governor Olayemi Cardoso to strengthen the banking system, modernise payments, improve financial inclusion and encourage responsible fintech innovation. The central bank has described institutional capacity, stronger financial-system infrastructure and modernised payment systems as important elements of its reform agenda.
Speaking virtually at the retreat, the CBN governor said the bank’s ongoing reforms were intended to become embedded in its culture, systems and processes rather than remain associated with individual leaders, while assuring employees that the institution was in a strong position.
“The bank is in a good place. Our staff have nothing to fear,” Cardoso said, arguing that reform and institutionalisation should strengthen the career civil service within the central bank.
Chairman of the CBN Committee of Departmental Directors, Jimoh Musa Itoba, meanwhile, described the directors as major anchors of the institution and urged them to use the retreat to develop practical measures that could strengthen financial stability and support economic growth.
For Nigeria’s financial regulators, however, the challenge identified by Inuwa is increasingly less about whether banking should become digital and more about how to supervise a system in which the most important risks may sit outside the institutions traditionally regarded as banks.
“The future of supervision is not merely to digitise regulation, but to digitally transform how regulators sense, understand and respond to risks across the ecosystem,” Inuwa said.
That shift would require regulators to monitor not only the balance sheets and activities of banks but also the technology infrastructure, service providers and interconnected platforms on which those institutions increasingly depend, making digital resilience an increasingly important component of financial stability.
Justice has over three years experience spanning digital and print media. At The PUNCH, he currently covers the automobile sector with special interest in features and industry analysis.
All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.
Contact: [email protected]