By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Wednesday released the Information Technology (IT) standards for Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria.
This is contained in a circular with reference ITD/DIR/GEN/INC/01/001 and signed by John Ayoh, Director, Information Technology Department of the CBN and made available on its website.
The circular reads thus: ‘’ in pursuant to the need to identify and adopt global IT standards which would provide guidelines for and serve as reference points in ensuring the quality of IT delivery in the Nigerian Banking Industry, through the IT infrastructure transformation program sponsored by the Bankers Committee in 2010’’ the CBN said.
According to Nigeria’s Central Bank, the Blueprint for the IT standards and governance framework has been defined and by the circular it’s been released to the industry for all deposit money banks to adopt.
The CBN affirmed that a five-year implementation roadmap for the IT standards has been defined within which period Nigerian Banks are expected to comply in accordance with the set timelines and the defined priorities.
‘’Implementation shall be in a continuum approach such that initial implementations would target maturity level three (3) and subsequently improve to include certifications and higher maturity levels,’’ the circular said.
The CBN said the IT standards council which would be reconstituted after every two (2) years is already in place to drive the adoption, implementation and compliance to the IT Standards required of banks in the industry.
‘’ The compliance audits shall begin at the end of the prescribed adoption period as indicated on the implementation roadmap. Baseline assessment for priority one (1) standards shall be carried out in banks in the first quarter of 2014’’ the CBN said.
