Adenuga: Securing Africa’s Digital Future Key to Economic Growth

CEO, Olla Systems, Olusola Adenuga, speaks about the need to build trusted local cloud services for regulated industries through compliance frameworks, as well as the need to secure Africa’s digital future for economic growth. Emma OKonji presents the excerpts:

Congratulations on Olla Systems achieving Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and the ISO 27001:2022 (Information Security Management Systems) and ISO 22301:2019 (Business Continuity Management Systems) standards. What do these milestones mean for your company and your clients across Africa?

Thank you. Achieving PCI DSS and ISO certifications is a major milestone for us because it validates the rigorous security controls we have put in place to protect sensitive data. For our clients – manufacturing companies, healthcare, banks, fintechs, e-commerce platforms, and government institutions – it provides assurance that their data is managed according to internationally recognised standards.

Beyond compliance, these certifications reinforce our commitment to being a trusted infrastructure partner in a landscape where data breaches can erode customer trust overnight. Ultimately, it’s about enabling our clients to focus on their core business with confidence, knowing their data and operations are secure with us.

You bring a rare blend of perspectives; first as a former bank Chief Information Officer and now as CEO of a cloud infrastructure company. How has that shaped your approach to building trusted cloud services for regulated industries?

My time as a bank CIO gave me firsthand understanding of the scrutiny, regulatory expectations, and security controls required in highly regulated environments. Banks are built on trust – every system decision is weighed against risk, resilience, and compliance. And as CIO, for about two decades, I functioned as Chief Technical Officer, Chief Digital Officer and all the technical C’s then. Transitioning to lead Olla Systems, I brought that same mindset. We design our cloud solutions with strict controls, auditability, and compliance frameworks embedded from the ground up. But equally, we aim to remove complexity for CIOs and CTOs so they can innovate faster without worrying about regulatory pitfalls.

From your time in banking to leading Olla Systems, what key shifts have you seen in how African organisations think about IT security and digital infrastructure?

One significant shift is that security is no longer treated as an afterthought or a cost center – it’s now central to business continuity and customer trust. The rise of digital banking, payments, and cloud-native startups has forced organizations to rethink their infrastructure strategies. They’re prioritizing resilience, data protection, and compliance earlier in the technology design phase. There’s also growing awareness that infrastructure decisions directly impact business agility, user experience, and regulatory risk, which was not the case a decade ago.

There’s growing interest in local cloud solutions across Africa. Why is ‘local’ so important when it comes to cloud adoption in sectors like finance, e-commerce, and government?

Local cloud infrastructure addresses several critical needs. Firstly, regulatory requirements are increasingly mandating data residency – keeping critical data local, whether citizen or financial data within national borders. Secondly, local cloud reduces latency, which improves application performance and user experience. Finally, it reduces exposure to foreign exchange volatility and geopolitical risks tied to offshore hosting. For banks, e-commerce platforms, and governments, these factors directly affect operational resilience, compliance, and cost predictability.

How is Olla Systems positioning OllaCloud as a locally compliant alternative to global cloud giants? What differentiates your offering?

OllaCloud is built from the ground up to align with local regulations while delivering enterprise-grade performance. Our differentiation lies in three areas: compliance, proximity, and partnership. Compliance because we integrate standards like PCI DSS, ISO 27001: 2022 and ISO 22301, Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR), and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) guidelines into our architecture. Proximity is one of the areas because our data centers are local, giving clients low-latency connectivity and data residency compliance. Partnership is also another area because we see ourselves not just as infrastructure providers, but as committed stakeholders helping clients navigate their regulatory and digital transformation journeys.

Nigeria’s regulators are increasingly focused on data residency and compliance. How does Olla Systems help clients meet these evolving requirements without compromising on innovation?

We achieve this by embedding compliance as a foundational design principle rather than as an add-on. Our infrastructure is hosted locally, and meets regulators’ expectations. This ensures clients can deploy cloud-native solutions while satisfying data residency, privacy, and sector-specific mandates. We also engage continuously with regulators to stay ahead of emerging guidelines, ensuring our clients remain compliant without stifling their innovation pipelines. We are strong advocates of local data hosted locally and work with enterprises willing to migrate critical data into local cloud. My experience in banking, combined with the broad expertise of the Olla Systems team, enables us to understand compliance from an operator’s perspective and apply this knowledge when designing solutions for our clients.

Your infrastructure serves high-growth startups and enterprise clients alike. How do you balance scalability with compliance and performance?

We architect OllaCloud to be modular and scalable. Companies can launch quickly with our standard secure configurations, while enterprises can customize controls to align with internal policies. Our infrastructure leverages high-performance computing resources with robust security controls, ensuring that as clients grow, they don’t have to sacrifice compliance for scalability or performance for security. This balance is crucial in today’s competitive environment where agility and trust are both business imperatives. We are also partners with global companies, such as Oracle among others.

What are the top concerns enterprise clients share when migrating workloads to the cloud, and how do you address them?

The main concerns are data security, regulatory compliance, vendor lock-in, and service reliability. We address these by ensuring our platforms meet stringent security standards like PCI DSS and ISO, maintaining transparent Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for uptime, and building our solutions on open standards to reduce lock-in fears. Additionally, our local presence reassures clients that we understand the unique regulatory and operational environments they operate in, and we are very accessible too!

You recently supported a leading bank with a cloud-powered infrastructure upgrade. What lessons from that project stand out, especially for other financial institutions considering similar transitions?

We were able to work with a first-generation bank, and that project reinforced the importance of strong stakeholder alignment from day one. Cloud migration is not just an IT decision; it’s a strategic business move. The bank’s migration to on-prem cloud helped it to steadily outpace its peers in operational efficiency and innovation agility. Another lesson was the need for phased migration with robust testing at each stage to ensure business continuity. 

Finally, for banks, it is important to work with a local partner familiar with both banking regulations and cloud infrastructure, to accelerate timelines and reduce compliance risks. 

Africa is seeing increased geopolitical interest in its digital infrastructure, from submarine cables to cloud regions. How should governments and private sector players respond to ensure digital sovereignty?

Africa’s digital sovereignty hinges on deliberate policy, local investment, and regional collaboration. Governments should prioritise regulatory frameworks that encourage data domiciliation, protect citizens’ data, and create incentives for local infrastructure buildout. But it is not only about policies; what is more important is creating the enabling environment for private sector to thrive and flourish. 

When enabled, private sector players will invest in indigenous capacity – building data centers, cloud platforms, and talent pipelines that keep Africa’s data within Africa. At Olla Systems, we believe sovereignty does not mean isolation; it is about ensuring Africans can store, process, and govern their data locally while remaining connected to global markets on our terms.

How can Africa effectively scale its digital infrastructure to match the pace of innovation?

Scaling requires a two-pronged approach: accelerating investments in critical infrastructure – such as data centers, fiber, interconnection hubs as well as the hardware required, as this is a critical component for innovation. As mentioned earlier, it is also about creating an enabling environment that attracts global and local players. We must address barriers like power costs, licensing complexity, and limited local financing. At Olla Systems, we are working with partners to build scalable cloud regions across Africa designed to handle emerging workloads such as AI, IoT, and advanced analytics, while remaining compliant with regional data regulations.

With AI adoption growing, how can companies like yours support AI workloads, especially those that require high-performance computing and secure, compliant environments?

AI workloads demand three key ingredients: compute power, secure environments, and proximity to data sources. At Olla Systems, our cloud infrastructure is designed with high-performance computing nodes, scalable Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) capabilities and offered out of Nigerian Tier III+ certified data centers, to support data sovereignty. We are also exploring strategic partnerships to bring AI-optimised infrastructure to market, ensuring that African enterprises can build, train, and deploy models without compromising on performance or compliance.

There is a rising interest in cross-border digital services across Africa under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement. How can digital businesses explore regional expansion while navigating diverse regulatory environments?

AfCFTA is a transformative opportunity, but regulatory fragmentation remains a challenge. Companies must adopt a compliance-by-design approach, investing in legal and regulatory expertise for each market they enter. At Olla Systems, our cloud offerings are designed to accommodate multi-jurisdictional compliance requirements, and we work closely with local regulators to ensure our customers can expand seamlessly while meeting data residency and protection laws in each country.

Downtime and cyberattacks can be devastating. What investments have you made in ensuring infrastructure resilience and business continuity for your clients?

At OllaCloud, we recognize that downtime and cyberattacks pose critical threats. Our investment strategy prioritizes building resilience into the core of our platform from day one. While we are actively scaling our infrastructure towards future geographic distribution, today’s OllaCloud platform delivers robust protection through a highly redundant, enterprise-grade architecture within our secure facility. This includes active-active clusters, redundant networking, and resilient storage, all designed to minimize single points of failure. We implement continuous, backups stored safely within the OllaCloud ecosystem. Combined with comprehensive disaster recovery planning and testing, this layered approach ensures significant protection and business continuity for our clients.

What advice would you give to CIOs and CTOs in regulated industries that are hesitant about moving to the cloud due to security or control concerns?

It’s no longer a question of if but when. Your competitors are already moving to the cloud to enhance operational resilience while managing costs. Eventually, your board or regulatory bodies will encourage this transition.

Begin by clearly understanding your regulatory requirements and risk appetite. Partner with cloud providers like Olla Systems that prioritise compliance and transparency. Don’t view the cloud as a loss of control; see it as an opportunity to enhance security and agility through a shared responsibility model.

Choose partners who will support you through every stage – design, migration, and compliance – ensuring your journey to the cloud strengthens rather than compromises your operational integrity.