By Martin Ekpeke
The Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) is positioning local internet interconnection as a critical piece of infrastructure for banks, fintechs and other financial institutions racing to comply with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) January 2027 data localisation deadline.
IXPN said its platform offers a fast and cost-effective route for regulated financial institutions to keep internet traffic within Nigeria while improving network performance, reducing latency and strengthening the resilience of the country’s digital ecosystem.
In a LinkedIn post, the digital infrastructure company said its local interconnection platform is designed to help organisations transition towards a more locally connected financial ecosystem as data localisation requirements take effect.
“To address these demands under the banner of ‘Local Data. Stronger Nigeria. A More Secure Financial Ecosystem,’ the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) is positioning its platform as the fastest and most affordable path to compliance,” the company said.
As part of the push, IXPN is offering financial institutions a free 12-month Proof of Concept (POC), allowing regulated entities to test its local interconnection infrastructure as they prepare for the CBN deadline.
The offer comes as Nigeria’s financial sector accelerates investment in data localisation, network resilience and digital infrastructure. Banks, fintechs, Payment Service Providers (PSPs) and other regulated entities are under growing pressure to ensure that their digital operations can meet emerging requirements around where data is hosted and how financial networks operate.
For these institutions, however, localisation is not only about where data sits. It also raises questions about how efficiently data and internet traffic move between local networks, cloud platforms, financial technology providers and other critical digital services.
IXPN said local interconnection can address that challenge by keeping Nigerian internet traffic within the country, reducing reliance on international routes and improving the speed and efficiency of connections between domestic networks.
The company believes this infrastructure will become increasingly important as financial institutions move towards greater data sovereignty while maintaining the performance and reliability expected of modern digital services.
With the January 2027 deadline approaching, the race to localise Nigeria’s financial data is therefore also becoming a race to build the domestic connectivity infrastructure needed to support it.