The Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX Group) on Tuesday said that weak data governance and unreliable digital systems could make it harder for African businesses to attract investment and increase the risks investors attach to funding them.

The NGX Group managing director, Temi Popoola, said this while delivering a keynote address on ‘Africa Capital Markets in a Data-driven Economy’ at the seventh CIO and C-Suite Conference and Awards Africa 2026 in Lagos.

Mr Popoola, represented by Jumoke Olaniyan, Group Chief Strategy Officer, NGX Group, said businesses with reliable data, strong controls and resilient systems are better positioned to earn investors’ confidence.

He described the financial disadvantage associated with weak information and governance as a trust discount.

According to him, investors can demand greater assurances or factor perceived risks into their funding decisions.

“Data strategy is also a business strategy; technology leaders and corporate boards should measure digital investments by their contributions to revenue, growth and access to capital, rather than treating them merely as operating costs,” he said.

Mr Popoola said the consequences of unreliable systems extended beyond information technology failures, potentially delaying transactions, weakening liquidity and undermining investor confidence.

He cited NGX Invest as an example of how reliable digital infrastructure could widen access to capital markets.

According to the NGX Group, the platform has facilitated more than 23 primary-market transactions and supported over N3 trillion in capital raising since its launch in 2024.

On data localisation, Popoola said keeping data within national borders did not automatically guarantee security.

He said that overly restrictive policies could increase costs, limit access to advanced services and complicate cross-border business.

Mr Popoola called for secure, interoperable digital systems that would enable African businesses to operate across markets while complying with different national regulations.

According to him, trusted identities, reliable data and regulatory cooperation are necessary to make regional capital markets more accessible to investors.

Also speaking, Rakiya Yusuf, director of the payment system supervision department at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said effective data localisation could stimulate investment in local data centres, cloud services, telecommunications infrastructure and digital platforms.

Ms Yusuf, who spoke on ‘Policy, Regulation and Data Sovereignty’, said that localisation could also improve regulators’ access to information for supervision, investigation and enforcement.

However, she identified infrastructure readiness as a major challenge, noting that successful implementation required reliable electricity, connectivity, data centres, cloud infrastructure and cybersecurity capabilities.

She said inadequate capacity could increase operational costs and reduce efficiency, particularly for financial institutions that depended on cross-border digital services and international technology partnerships.

Ms Yusuf urged financial institutions to treat data localisation as a strategic and risk-management responsibility for their boards, rather than merely an information technology project.

She also called for comprehensive mapping of payment-data flows, stronger cybersecurity and data protection, tested recovery systems and continued engagement with the CBN on implementation challenges.

(NAN)