Building Cloud Resilience for National Transactions

Leading the strategic design and execution of FirstBank’s multi-phase cloud transformation to modernize infrastructure and accelerate innovation.

Client
Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS)
Services
Enterprise Digital Strategy
Duration
March 2024 - Nov 2024

About the project

NIBSS operates Nigeria’s National Switch, which powers interbank transactions, POS operations, and payment gateways across the country. To enhance system resilience and ensure business continuity, we designed and deployed a fully operational availability site on AWS Cloud—serving as a robust failover environment for the National Switch.

My Responsibilities
  • Program Leadership: Led the end-to-end execution of the AWS availability site setup in collaboration with NIBSS’ infrastructure and security teams.
  • Architecture Design: Developed a high-availability architecture tailored for real-time financial transactions with minimal latency.
  • Compliance & Security: Ensured alignment with CBN regulations and implemented advanced controls, including encryption, IAM, and VPC isolation.
  • Testing & Validation: Coordinated disaster recovery (DR) simulations and site failover tests to validate performance under load.
  • Stakeholder Management: Engaged executive stakeholders and coordinated multi-party technical workshops to ensure seamless alignment.

Project Results

This project significantly improved the robustness of Nigeria’s payment infrastructure:

  • Established a secure, cloud-based availability zone for the National Switch on AWS.
  • Enabled seamless failover capabilities, ensuring continuous transaction processing in the event of primary site disruptions.
  • Reduced operational risk and downtime exposure for over 30 participating banks and fintechs.
  • Positioned NIBSS to scale more flexibly while maintaining high compliance standards.

Interested in working together? Get in touch today.

Whether you’re building something new or rethinking something old, I’d love to hear from you. Reach out and let’s connect.