The Nigeria Inter Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) Plc has begun the rollout of the National Payment Stack (NPS), recording 26.55 million transactions valued at N1.4 trillion across 48 participating institutions. The NPS is a sovereign, ISO 20022 compliant digital infrastructure designed to succeed legacy NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) system and modernise Nigeria’s financial ecosystem. The NPS unifies payments, identity, and data onto a single intelligent rail, the multi-currency architecture bridges transaction processing and payment intelligence while establishing robust cross-border capabilities.

Data from NIBSS showed that First Bank of Nigeria leads the industry in total transaction volume, while Fidelity Bank holds the lead in overall transaction value. Other key early adopters driving network scale also include Guaranty Trust Bank, Sterling Bank, Access Bank and Moniepoint. Speaking on the rollout, managing director and chief executive of NIBSS, Premier Oiwoh, said “the National Payment Stack represents is an economic catalyst moving our financial infrastructure from basic transaction processing to comprehensive payment intelligence.

By delivering an ISO 20022-compliant, multi-currency rail, we are laying the groundwork for unprecedented interoperability, heightened security, and seamless regional trade.” He further emphasized that complete ecosystem readiness relies heavily on full participant alignment across technical and operational fronts. “To guarantee an optimal transaction experience for end-users, it is imperative that all participating financial services institutions immediately activate all related messages and fund transfer credit and debit processing rails.

NIBSS remains committed to providing continuous technical support, detailed guidelines, and integration assistance to help institutions achieve full compliance with KYC validation standards and optimize API consumption. “This proactive engagement will prevent platform congestion, enforce proper usage standards, and safeguard system performance as we work together with all institutions to complete integration for Funds Transfer Debit and advanced messaging capabilities. Ultimately, our shared objective is to achieve a seamless, full industry cut-over to the National Payment Stack as we prepare to decommission our 15-year-old legacy NIP rail.”

Also, Director of the Payments System Supervision Department at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Rakiya Opemi Yusuf, urged financial institutions nationwide to accelerate their NPS integration during a recent working visit to NIBSS Headquarters.

Her statement reaffirms the apex bank’s mandatory and full regulatory support for the ISO 20022 standard in Nigeria’s payment system. The NPS platform introduces key operational and structural advances across the financial sector, ISO 20022 Data Architecture: Enables structured, metadata-rich transactions that automate corporate reconciliation, streamline merchant collections, and power request-to-pay invoicing.

It also consolidates single transfers and high-volume corporate disbursements onto one platform, supporting direct debits, asynchronous processing, and deferred settlement options.

As Published in Leadership NG, Thisday, Punch NG, Daily Trust and Business Day

Dr (Mrs) Rakiya Opemi Yusuf, Director of the Payments System Supervision Department at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has called on financial institutions across the federation to accelerate the adoption of the ISO 20022-compliant National Payment Stack (NPS), reaffirming the central bank’s backing of the next-generation digital infrastructure. Co-created through extensive collaboration across the financial ecosystem under the guidance of the CBN, the platform marks a milestone in Nigeria’s payment modernization strategy.

The endorsement came during a courtesy visit to the Lagos headquarters of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) PLC, where Dr Yusuf met with Premier Oiwoh, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NIBSS.
Among other key agenda items, the meeting addressed industry readiness ahead of the CBN’s August 1, 2026 deadline for Point of Sale (PoS) geo-tagging and geo-fencing compliance, as well as collaborative efforts to combat payment fraud using real-time threat intelligence platforms like Hawk.

Underscoring the regulator’s stance on payment modernization and platform security, Dr Yusuf highlighted the pivotal role of the NPS in reshaping domestic finance stated “The National Payment Stack represents a fundamental evolution in our payment architecture, delivering the data richness, speed, and resilience required for a modern economy. The Central Bank of Nigeria fully supports this initiative, and we strongly urge all commercial banks, payment service providers, and financial institutions to expedite their integration onto the NPS rail. Adopting this unified infrastructure, alongside rigorous compliance with our PoS geo-tagging and geo-fencing directives, is essential to safeguarding system integrity and driving sustainable financial inclusion.”

In response, Premier Oiwoh expressed profound appreciation for the apex bank’s steadfast leadership and collaborative approach to ecosystem stability. “We are deeply honoured to host Dr Rakiya Yusuf and the leadership of the Payments System Supervision Department. The CBN’s unwavering support for the National Payment Stack serves as a powerful catalyst for full industry alignment. NIBSS remains resolutely committed to operationalising regulatory directives—from enforcing PoS geo-fencing capabilities to deploying advanced fraud management solutions like Hawk. With over 26 million transactions already completed during its pilot stage, the NPS has proven its reliability. It is not merely a payment rail, but a continuous, highly scalable infrastructure engineered to power the entire financial ecosystem for businesses, government, and the CBN alike. Together with the apex bank and our industry partners, we are building a secure, transparent, and resilient digital financial framework for Nigeria,” he stated.

The joint commitment reinforces a synchronized effort between the regulator and the national payment infrastructure provider to enforce compliance, optimize API consumption, and eliminate system vulnerabilities ahead of key regulatory cut-offs, paving the way for the ultimate retirement of the NIBSS Instant Payments (NIP) rail after more than 15 years of dedicated service to the industry.

Nigeria’s electronic payment ecosystem has shattered historical records, processing an unprecedented NGN 1.07 quadrillion (approximately USD 702 billion / KES 91.2 trillion) in transactions over the past year. Driven by the technological architecture of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), the nation is cementing its status as the premier digital finance hub on the African continent, drastically outpacing traditional banking methodologies.

Data published in early 2026 reveals that transaction volumes on the NIBSS Instant Payments (NIP) platform reached 11.2 billion, representing a staggering 120 percent increase from 2022 figures. This massive migration toward digital liquidity underscores a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour, accelerated by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regulatory mandates and the relentless expansion of mobile-first fintech solutions.

The Architecture of Instant Liquidity

The foundation of this digital revolution is the NIP platform, originally deployed in 2011 to facilitate real-time inter-bank transfers. Operating continuously on a 24/7 basis, the system now settles the vast majority of transactions in under one second. This unparalleled speed has transformed daily commerce across Nigeria, allowing micro-vendors in Lagos markets and corporate entities in Abuja to execute instant verifiable settlements without the friction of physical cash.

According to the CBN Fintech Report 2025, the exponential growth in volume was heavily catalysed by the mandatory linkage of Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) to the National Identification Number (NIN) database. This regulatory enforcement effectively cleaned the financial registry, enhancing institutional trust and severely crippling synthetic identity fraud. Currently, over 66 million BVNs are actively linked to verified profiles, serving as the digital bedrock for secure financial onboarding.

Cross-Border Implications for Africa

Nigeria’s success offers a powerful blueprint for regional peers seeking to modernize their sovereign payment systems. In East Africa, Kenya’s widely celebrated M-Pesa ecosystem dominates the mobile money sector, yet the Nigerian model demonstrates the raw scale achievable through a unified, central bank-backed interoperability switch. Experts at the AfricaNenda Foundation note that integrating Nigeria’s NIP framework with regional platforms across the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) could eventually eliminate the need for US Dollar intermediation in intra-African trade.

For global investors monitoring the continent from London and New York, the maturation of NIBSS signals a highly derisked environment for capital deployment. Fintech unicorns that rely on NIBSS infrastructure—such as Paystack, Flutterwave, and Moniepoint—have continually attracted immense venture capital, proving that robust underlying infrastructure is the primary prerequisite for private sector innovation.

• Total Transaction Value (2024): NGN 1.07 quadrillion (USD 702 billion / KES 91.2 trillion).
• Transaction Volume: 11.2 billion distinct transfers processed.
• Identity Verification: Over 66 million unique Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) issued.
• Settlement Speed: Core transactions settle in under one second via NIP.

The Structural Challenges of Agent Banking

Despite the headline numbers, the ecosystem faces entrenched structural challenges, particularly concerning rural financial inclusion. The agent banking model, which relies on physical Point-of-Sale (POS) operators to bridge the digital-cash divide, is currently wrestling with restrictive profit margins. The CBN’s October 2025 Agent Banking Guidelines introduced tighter operational standards, which have inadvertently strained the commercial viability of rural agents.

Ultra-low transaction fees benefit the end consumer but severely restrict the revenue potential for agents operating in areas with poor telecommunications connectivity and unstable power grids. Consequently, the digital payment revolution remains disproportionately concentrated in major urban centers, leaving millions of agrarian workers structurally excluded from the formal digital economy.

Preparing for a Quadrillion-Naira Future

To sustain this exponential growth trajectory, NIBSS is aggressively upgrading its core infrastructure. The ongoing transition toward the ISO 20022 global messaging standard will enhance data richness within payment pipelines, allowing financial institutions to embed comprehensive remittance data alongside instant transfers. This capability is critical for corporate treasury management and cross-border anti-money laundering (AML) compliance.

Furthermore, the CBN’s overarching Payments System Vision (PSV) 2028 outlines the integration of blockchain adjacencies and advanced artificial intelligence for real-time fraud detection. As Nigeria edges closer to a fully cash-lite economy, the mandate for NIBSS is clear: maintaining zero-downtime resilience while safeguarding a quadrillion-naira economy from sophisticated cyber threats.

First Publish on Streamline Feed

The Association of Corporate Communication and Marketing Professionals in Banks (ACAMB) has urged banks to deepen the adoption of digital payment channels, including QR code payments, following a courtesy visit to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) Plc in Lagos.

The visit, which brought the leadership of both bodies together, followed a deliberation around a shared concern with emphasis on the need for the industry to strengthen its payment rails and speak with a united and accurate voice when service disruptions occur.

Leading the ACAMB delegation, President, Jide Sipe said the association wants a forum where banks can have a single conversation about the sector, so that new and valuable developments are effectively disseminated to the public promptly and accurately.

“We want to make sure there is a space where banks engage, share ideas, and ask relevant questions about how to grow the industry as well as manage its challenges,” Mr Sipe said.

The association’s President added that ACAMB has been meeting stakeholders across the sector, including the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria *(CIBN)*, to understand where the association can support better collaboration and engagement.

Mr Sipe pointed to recent system downtime as a test of how the industry communicates. He said ACAMB wants the narrative around such incidents to rest on accurate information rather than on accounts from people outside the operations, and proposed a stakeholders’ conference that would connect heads of corporate communications directly with NIBSS.

Responding, NIBSS Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Premier Oiwoh, said, reliable digital payment infrastructures are foundational for economic inclusion. “That is why one of the key ingredients that shape our philosophy at NIBSS is our commitment to financial inclusion. Seamless and effective payment has always been at the core of what we do and one key path to achieving this is ensuring a payment system that works. This will in return optimise revenue security, better customer experiences, and faster time-to-market which in return facilitates economic growth.”

Mr Oiwoh said that since joining NIBSS in May 2019, the organisation has prioritised industry fairness and trust in digital payments by tracking transaction “velocity” to anticipate crashes and shifting load between environments to keep services running. “As we all know, customers expect payments to be fast, accurate, and flexible”, he remarked.

He further ascribed NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) as the foundation of that work, describing it as Nigeria’s first account-based instant transfer and, by the organisation’s account, the first of its kind anywhere in the world, when it launched about 15 years ago.

Mr Oiwoh linked that foundation to the National Payment Stack (NPS) created by NIBSS, which he said is effectively cutting transaction time and lifting efficiency across the system.

By his account, the NPS “enables secure, real-time payments, cross-border transactions, and financial inclusion across Nigeria and Africa,” giving banks and customers faster, more reliable rails to move money within the country and beyond its borders.

According to him, NPS, today ranks top compared to other payment systems across the globe, including India’s Unified Payment Interface (UPI) due to the obvious evidence inherent in its performance, which is second to none at the moment and we are proud that this came out of Nigeria.

He also spoke on other key responsibilities of NIBSS, which include but not limited to fashioning out best innovative solutions to promote interoperability among banks, deepening trust and awareness with the digital payment platform and most importantly tactical support in helping to curb fraud, which has been immensely successful with numerous fraud mitigations leading to high profile arrests, since assuming office, particularly with the help of law enforcement agencies.

He also spoke on the need for banks to also adopt other innovative ways of payment like the NQR (Nigeria Quick Response) code which he noted is a secure, account-based payment solution designed by NIBSS to simplify and reduce the cost of mobile transactions. It allows customers to securely transfer funds simply by scanning a merchant’s displayed QR code with their banking app. Some of the benefits, he mentioned, include, Instant Settlement; Instant Notifications; Zero Onboarding Cost; Lower Transaction Fees, NQR significantly lowers processing and transaction fees across various price bands.

According to Mr Oiwoh, “there is absolutely no *huge* cost to acquire or set up the merchant infrastructure, businesses only need to print or display the code. Both the buyer and the seller get immediate transaction alerts, allowing for real-time payment verification. Most importantly, there are fewer disputes & chargebacks. The inherent benefits point to an efficient system that further engenders ease for all”, he said.

The conversation reinforced an industry shift toward faster, contactless payments, with ACAMB urging banks to expand their rollout of NIBSS NQR-powered QR payments *for and on behalf of the financial service industry*, which let customers pay by scanning a code rather than reaching for *cash.* Oiwoh pointed out that United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc was among the early movers, onboarding all its POS merchants onto NQR so that customers without their cards can simply scan to pay.

Founded in 1996, ACAMB continues to position itself as the industry’s voice on reputation, advocacy, and professional standards. It continues to hold sway as an association committed towards restoring the ethics and public confidence in the financial sector as well as shaping positive views as the sector emerges stronger within and outside Nigeria, subSahara and African markets.

Published on Premium Times, Guardian, The Punch, Blueprint, PM News and  Business Hallmark

The recent launch of the Nigeria Payments System Vision (PSV) 2028 by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) marks a pivotal milestone in the nation’s journey towards a digital economy. The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) Plc commends the Governor of the CBN, Mr. Olayemi Cardoso, and the apex bank’s leadership for establishing this forward-thinking blueprint. As the Governor noted during his speech, “this is a national roadmap designed to fundamentally transform how every Nigerian transacts, trades, saves, and invests.”

At NIBSS, this vision is viewed as a mission that aligns with our core operational mandate. As the bedrock of Nigeria’s digital payment infrastructure, our strategic initiatives are engineered to serve as the primary execution engine for the pillars outlined in the vision.

To drive this execution, the National Payment Stack (NPS) serves as a platform and key fundamental anchor for the vision’s core pillars:

• Financial Inclusion: PSV 2028 target 95% formal financial inclusion rate by 2028, bringing over 50 million more Nigerians into the formal financial The NPS supports this ambition by providing scalable, cost-efficient infrastructure that extends secure digital payment platform access to underserved communities, while enabling sovereign initiatives such as the AfriGO domestic card scheme to deepen acceptance across urban and rural markets.

• Infrastructure: As digital transactions grow exponentially, the NPS utilizes the global ISO 20022 messaging standard to deliver high-capacity, real-time settlement. This architecture enhances system resilience, reduces transaction friction, and ensures seamless interoperability across banks, fintechs, OFIs, merchants, and government payment systems. This provides the foundation to support PSV 2028’s ambition to expand payment acceptance through millions of QR and tap-to-pay touchpoints
• Innovation and Digital Assets: PSV 2028 envisions greater collaboration through open APIs, enabling next-generation fintech solutions, reducing cash outside the banking system to less than 40%, and creating the conditions for Nigeria’s next global fintech unicorn by 2028. Supporting this vision, the NPS provides interoperable payment infrastructure that powers an open API economy, enabling fintechs and financial institutions to build, scale, and accelerate innovative digital financial solutions.

Beyond domestic growth, the NPS expands Nigeria’s reach while securing the digital ecosystem:

• Cross-Border Payments: By natively adopting the international ISO 20022 standards, the NPS positions Nigeria’s payment infrastructure globally, simplifying cross-border messaging, reducing settlement complexities, and enabling deeper integration with regional and global financial systems in line with PSV 2028’s broader integration
• Cybersecurity and Consumer Trust: Trust remains the foundation for the future of digital finance. The NPS integrates advanced security architecture, intelligence monitoring, and enhanced fraud management tools designed to strengthen economic resilience, safeguard transactions, and support the vision’s objective of reducing fraud losses to less than 0.001% by 2028.

The NPS is a journey that marks the beginning of a major milestone in the future of payments in Nigeria. It provides a future-ready foundation that will continuously evolve to meet emerging needs and opportunities; working closely with ecosystem partners to enable innovation and the development of new solutions that drive greater value for the ecosystem.

The successful realization of PSV 2028 requires collaboration across all ecosystem players. The vision has been set, and the targets have been identified; it is time for the ecosystem to execute.

James Emejo writes that the launch of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Payments System Vision 2028 marks more than the unveiling of another policy framework

For years, Nigeria’s payments ecosystem has been celebrated as one of Africa’s most innovative, producing real-time payments infrastructure, fostering fintech growth and driving the continent’s digital finance revolution. Yet, despite these achievements, millions of Nigerians remained outside the formal financial system, electronic fraud continued to threaten trust, and the country’s innovations remain largely underappreciated globally.

Against this backdrop, PSV 2028 emerges as a bold national blueprint designed to push financial inclusion to 95 per cent, bring an additional 15 million Nigerians into the formal financial system, deepen payment penetration, strengthen trust and security, and position Nigeria as both a continental and global payments powerhouse.

However, beyond the lofty targets and policy declarations, discussions during the launch revealed that the true challenge lies not in technology itself, but in affordability, accessibility, execution, collaboration and trust. The accompanying panel session brought together regulators, infrastructure providers, fintech leaders and inclusion advocates whose interventions collectively exposed both the promise and complexity of achieving the vision.

Beyond Policy: Building Nigeria’s ‘Invisible Roads’

At the heart of PSV 2028 is the recognition that modern payment systems have become critical economic infrastructure.

Speaking at the launch, CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, framed the vision as a blueprint for how Nigerians will transact, save, trade and participate in the digital economy over the next several years. He repeatedly returned to the idea of payment systems as “invisible roads” that move money, arguing that just as physical infrastructure drives commerce, digital payment infrastructure now underpins productivity, trade, investment and economic growth.

For Cardoso, PSV 2028 is fundamentally about outcomes. The ambition is to achieve near-universal financial inclusion, drastically reduce fraud losses, accelerate transaction speeds and nurture globally competitive fintech companies capable of exporting innovation from Nigeria to the world.

His emphasis on execution was unmistakable. Nigeria’s history is littered with well-crafted policy documents that failed to deliver transformational outcomes because implementation faltered. PSV 2028 seeks to avoid that fate by making measurable impact the benchmark of success.

The central bank governor’s vision connects payment infrastructure directly to poverty reduction. By expanding access to financial services and reducing reliance on cash, more Nigerians can participate meaningfully in economic activities, access credit, save securely and engage in formal commerce.

According to Cardoso, the vision represented a sweeping reform targeting 95 per cent financial inclusion, and “faster-than-a-blink” digital transactions, adding that the new framework aimed at drastic reduction in electronic fraud losses, and the emergence of globally competitive Nigerian fintech unicorns.

Cardoso stressed that PSV 2028 is designed to position Nigeria as a global fintech hub, with explicit ambition to produce internationally competitive fintech unicorns.

He noted that open banking reforms have unlocked over 100 Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), creating opportunities for innovation, new products and financial services expansion.

According to him, Nigerian innovators should be able to build global fintech solutions from Lagos, Abuja and Kano, using domestic data and infrastructure.

He said the country must transition from a fintech adoption market to a fintech production and export economy.

Importantly, Cardoso urged Nigerians to actively project its fintech achievements globally, warning that failure to tell its own story risks allowing external narratives to define its progress albeit in away not comfortable for the country.

“If we do not tell the story, others will tell it for us,” he said.

Cardoso said,” The central bank has provided a platform—but in actual fact, it is owned by everyone. As was said earlier—and I fully endorse it—we must work together to ensure execution.

“We must also measure performance. It is fine to have well-crafted words, but if we do not measure outcomes, we will lose track.

“We must keep in mind that there is a broader roadmap for outputs. As the government builds roads, schools, and hospitals, we here must also build the invisible roads that move money.” He said, “And that is why Nigeria’s payments system vision 2028 is critical to national prosperity. Let us keep that in mind. The journey is still ongoing. That is part of it—and a major part of it. The journey is to lift people out of poverty, and to have an impact on GDP.

“Today’s payment systems process millions of transactions every day, and the majority are completed in less than 10 seconds.

“By 2028, our target is simple: every Nigerian—from Abuja to Brass—will be able to send and receive money faster than they can blink. Inclusion, not exclusion.”

The apex bank boss said, “In 2023, a large number of Nigerian adults had access to financial services. Under Vision 2028, I would like to see this reach 95 per cent inclusion—meaning 15 million more market women, farmers, and young people will gain access to financial services.”

The Structural Shift in Moving Value

CBN Deputy Governor for Economic Policy, Dr. Muhammad Sani Abdullahi, elevated the conversation beyond banking and fintech.

According to him, PSV 2028 represents a structural shift in how value moves across the Nigerian economy. The framework is anchored on five interconnected pillars — infrastructure, inclusion, innovation, cross-border payments and system integrity.

The logic is straightforward: infrastructure enables inclusion; inclusion drives adoption; adoption fuels innovation; and innovation stimulates growth.

Importantly, Abdullahi linked the vision to Nigeria’s continental ambitions under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), positioning the country as a regional payments hub capable of facilitating trade and investment flows across Africa.

This broader economic framing signals a significant departure from earlier payment reforms that focused primarily on domestic transactions. PSV 2028 now seeks to make payments a strategic instrument of economic competitiveness.

Financial Inclusion: The Last Mile Challenge

While the vision projects ambitious inclusion targets, participants acknowledged that reaching the remaining excluded Nigerians may prove more difficult than earlier phases of financial inclusion.

CBN Director of Payments System Policy Department, Jimoh Itopa Musa, reflected on the country’s progress through the cashless policy and agency banking initiatives. With roughly two million banking agents spread across the country, access barriers have been reduced considerably.

Yet access alone is no longer enough.

He said the countrys financial inclusion journey was shaped by efforts to address three key barriers including access, complexity and trust.

Musa noted that Nigeria now has about two million banking agents nationwide, describing them as small business owners who have expanded access to financial services in underserved communities.

He added that these reforms significantly reduced reliance on cash, lowered transaction costs, and expanded participation in the formal economy.

He stressed that PSV 2028 represented the next phase of reform, focused on efficiency, security, innovation and deeper financial penetration, noting that trust remained central to the system, warning that without it, digital adoption would remain constrained despite infrastructure expansion.

Managing Director of Shared Agent Network Expansion Facilities (SANEF), Uche Uzoebo, argued that the conversation must move beyond simply circulating money within the existing financial system.

Her intervention exposed a critical reality: many of the underbanked and financially excluded are not absent because they reject financial services. Rather, they are often priced out of participation.

According to her, transaction charges, device costs and limited access to affordable funding continued to discourage many low-income Nigerians from embracing digital finance.

For a market woman transferring N5,000, even modest transaction fees can become a deterrent. The result is predictable: cash remains preferable.

Her perspective highlighted perhaps the most important question facing PSV 2028 — whether digital finance can become genuinely affordable for the people it seeks to include.

Technology Is Only 20 Per Cent

One of the most thought-provoking interventions came from Managing Director of Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), Premier Oiwoh.

Despite presiding over one of Africa’s most sophisticated payment infrastructures, Oiwoh argued that technology accounts for only about 20 per cent of the vision’s success.

The remaining 80 per cent, he suggested, lies in execution, collaboration, education and behavioural change.

His comments underscored a growing consensus among industry leaders that infrastructure alone cannot drive adoption. Financial literacy, trust-building and widespread accessibility must accompany technological innovation.

Oiwoh’s announcement that controlled pilot transactions have commenced on the National Payment Stack further signalled Nigeria’s determination to build next-generation infrastructure.

Yet he also warned that inclusion will remain elusive unless access devices become more affordable. He advocated local smartphone manufacturing, wider device distribution and eventual migration away from feature phones.

In his view, digital inclusion ultimately requires digital tools in the hands of ordinary Nigerians.

The Cost Debate: Inclusion versus Sustainability

One of the panel’s most engaging themes centred on the question of affordability.

Several participants argued for reducing or even eliminating transaction charges for digital payments.

Oiwoh proposed that financial applications should be zero-rated for data consumption, enabling users to transact without worrying about internet costs.

Uzoebo similarly called for lower transaction charges and cheaper devices, particularly for low-income users whose financial participation is most sensitive to cost.

However, the discussion also exposed a tension between social inclusion and commercial sustainability.

Nigerian entrepreneur and software engineer, Oluwatosin Eniolorunda, acknowledged the importance of affordability but cautioned that payment providers must remain economically viable.

He argued that Nigeria already operates one of the world’s cheapest payment systems and that operators have had to become increasingly innovative to sustain their businesses.

Similarly, Remita Managing Director, Deremi Atanda, observed that while payment services can be viewed as developmental infrastructure, commercial realities cannot be ignored.

Somebody, he noted, must ultimately bear the cost.

The debate reflects a broader policy challenge facing regulators globally: balancing affordability for users with sustainability for service providers.

Measuring Success Beyond Inclusion Numbers

A recurring theme throughout the event was the importance of metrics.

While the headline target remains 95 per cent financial inclusion, tne panelists argued that inclusion alone cannot fully capture the success of PSV 2028.

Eniolorunda advocated a more comprehensive scorecard encompassing customer experience, trust, transaction reliability, complaint volumes, institutional resilience and public perception.

His argument was simple: access means little if users continually experience failed transactions, unresolved disputes or concerns about security.

Atanda expanded the conversation by proposing a quarterly PSV 2028 dashboard that would transparently track progress and hold stakeholders accountable.

He also suggested measuring the proportion of Nigerians with National Identification Numbers (NIN) who actively participate in digital transactions.

Together, these proposals reflect an emerging shift from measuring access alone to measuring quality, trust and usage.

Trust, Security and the Fraud Challenge

No payment ecosystem can thrive without trust.

Cardoso’s target of reducing fraud losses to less than 0.001 per cent of total transactions by 2028 reflected the centrality of security to the vision.

The strategy relies heavily on integrating NIN and Bank Verification Number (BVN) systems alongside artificial intelligence-driven fraud detection capabilities.

At the panel session, OPay Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer, Dotun Adekunle, reinforced this objective.

He observed that previous generations of financial innovation often prioritised technological possibilities while underestimating security risks.

According to him, the emergence of stronger cybersecurity frameworks under the CBN represents a significant turning point.

Rather than treating cybersecurity as a compliance exercise, institutions are increasingly being assessed against robust resilience standards.

Adekunle’s optimism suggests that the industry now possesses a clearer roadmap for balancing innovation with security.

Ultimately, however, trust extends beyond cybersecurity. It includes confidence that transactions will be completed successfully, complaints will be resolved promptly and money will remain accessible when needed.

From Payment Adoption to Payment Export

One of the most forward-looking discussions focused on Nigeria’s global ambitions.

Cardoso challenged stakeholders to tell Nigeria’s fintech success story more effectively, warning that failure to shape the narrative allows others to define it.

Atanda also echoed this sentiment strongly.

He argued that many of Nigeria’s most significant payment innovations remain under-recognised internationally. Long before concepts such as Open Banking gained prominence globally, Nigeria had already achieved remarkable interoperability through locally developed solutions.

For him, PSV 2028 should include deliberate efforts to export Nigerian payment technologies across Africa.

He proposed closer collaboration among the payments ecosystem, trade authorities and investment agencies to develop a continental expansion strategy.

Oiwoh reinforced the urgency of this opportunity.

According to him, more than 35 African countries engaged with Nigeria’s payment ecosystem in the previous year alone.

Failure to seize this moment could mean surrendering influence, competitiveness and economic advantage to rival payment hubs elsewhere on the continent.

The implication is profound: PSV 2028 is not merely about domestic financial inclusion. It is also about securing Nigeria’s position within the future architecture of African commerce.

The Real Test Begins

The launch of PSV 2028 has generated optimism because it builds on a proven foundation. Nigeria already possesses one of Africa’s most sophisticated payment ecosystems, a thriving fintech sector and an increasingly digital population.

Yet the discussions surrounding the launch also revealed that the next phase of transformation will be significantly more complex than previous ones.

The challenge is no longer simply creating payment infrastructure. It is ensuring affordability, expanding trust, improving customer experience, strengthening cybersecurity, deepening inclusion and converting domestic innovation into global influence.

If Cardoso’s vision succeeds, Nigeria could emerge by 2028 with near-universal financial inclusion, world-class payment infrastructure, stronger economic productivity and a leading role in shaping Africa’s digital payments future.

But as several participants repeatedly stressed, success will depend less on the elegance of the framework than on the discipline of execution.

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The event, attended by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Yemi Cardoso, marked a formal articulation of where Nigeria’s payments architecture is headed over the next four years, making it a significant platform for Oiwoh to state a position that goes beyond NIBSS’s internal advocacy.

Published on Thisdaylive

Every modern digital payment ecosystem eventually encounters a difficult truth: no financial infrastructure built by humans is completely immune to technical disruptions.

Across the world’s most advanced banking systems, operational outages, settlement delays, and transaction backlogs have repeatedly tested public confidence in digital finance.

The United States Federal Reserve has experienced payment processing outages that temporarily disrupted wire transfers across financial institutions. The United Kingdom’s Faster Payments network has also faced periodic settlement bottlenecks during traffic surges. In Asia and Europe, even highly sophisticated payment rails occasionally suffer operational interruptions during periods of extreme transaction pressure.

Nigeria’s financial system is now confronting its own moment of scrutiny following the controversy surrounding the recent glitches linked to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS). But the bigger story is not the existence of the glitch itself. The deeper issue is whether the country possesses the institutional architecture capable of identifying and fixing the issues when they occur within a complex digital ecosystem handling quadrillions of naira in transactions.

The answer emerging is that Nigeria’s payment system is no longer operating at a primitive or weak level. Instead, it has evolved into one of the most sophisticated real-time settlement ecosystems in Africa, supported by biometric identity tracking, centralized interbank switching, and nationwide payment visibility.

The recent incident did not expose the collapse of Nigeria’s payment rails. Rather, it revealed the immense scale and sensitivity of a robust digital economy now processing transaction volumes that would have been unimaginable less than a decade ago.

Over the last 10 years, Nigeria’s electronic payment ecosystem has expanded at an extraordinary speed. What was once a trillion-naira digital transaction environment has grown into a quadrillion-naira ecosystem driven by mobile transfers, instant payments, agency banking, fintech applications, and cashless retail adoption.

The transformation accelerated sharply after the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped consumer behaviour and pushed businesses toward digital transactions. The 2023 cash scarcity crisis further intensified the migration away from physical cash, while the explosive expansion of Point-of-Sale agents decentralised financial services beyond traditional banking halls.

At the centre of this transition sits NIBSS, the core switching and settlement infrastructure connecting banks, fintech firms, mobile money operators, and payment service providers.

Its NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) platform processes enormous transaction volumes daily across banks and digital platforms. The infrastructure has become the invisible backbone powering salary payments, online commerce, transfers, airtime purchases, merchant settlements, and government collections.

The rapid expansion of fintech companies such as Moniepoint, OPay, Kuda, and PalmPay was also enabled by the interoperability and open API ecosystem built around NIBSS infrastructure.

This explosive growth, however, comes with what can be described as the “growth tax” of digital finance. The larger and faster the transaction ecosystem becomes, the greater the operational pressure placed on switching engines, reconciliation systems, and settlement architecture.

At a systems level, this creates predictable stress points. Peak-volume windows such as holiday seasons or salary payment cycles can trigger temporary synchronization delays between switching layers, bank core systems, and reconciliation engines. These do not necessarily represent structural failure, but rather the friction that emerges when real-time demand expands faster than backend settlement and validation cycles are able to scale in perfect alignment.

That context is critical to understanding the N13.66 billion dry posting incident linked to the country’s payment platform. Contrary to widespread public assumptions, the issue was not a fresh cyberattack. The operational glitch actually occurred nearly two years ago, between September 6 and September 9, 2024.

The root cause was a technical accounting logic error within the NIBSS Instant Payment engine. The system successfully credited beneficiary accounts but failed to execute the corresponding debit instructions from originating accounts. In banking operations, this is known as “dry posting,” a situation where credits are created without matching debits.

Importantly, the system did not lose visibility of the transactions. The affected funds were traced directly to 176 beneficiary accounts that received unearned credits during the error window.

The more consequential issue emerged afterward. Rather than reporting the unexpected inflows, several account holders reportedly transferred, layered, dispersed, or withdrew the funds across multiple financial institutions during the weekend period before reconciliation processes resumed.

This transformed an operational mistake into a financial crime issue involving unjust enrichment and unlawful retention of funds.

By Monday, September 9, 2024, NIBSS had identified the anomaly and sought immediate reversals through participating financial institutions. However, Nigerian banking laws create strict liability around customer account debits.

Commercial banks risk major legal exposure if they reverse customer balances without judicial authorization, especially after funds have already been transferred across institutions or partially withdrawn.

That legal deadlock explains why the issue resurfaced publicly in May 2026.

NIBSS approached the Federal High Court in Lagos seeking judicial intervention against 19 financial institutions connected to the traced accounts. The respondents include major Tier-1 lenders such as Access Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank, and United Bank for Africa, alongside institutions including Ecobank, FCMB, Fidelity Bank, Polaris Bank, Sterling Bank, TAJ Bank, Titan Trust Bank, Providus Bank, Wema Bank, Moniepoint MFB, Kuda MFB, and FairMoney MFB.

The legal strategy goes beyond simple account restrictions.

NIBSS is attempting to deploy Nigeria’s Bank Verification Number (BVN) infrastructure as a nationwide enforcement mechanism. The request before the court seeks blanket Post No Debit (PND) orders tied to the BVNs associated with the implicated accounts.

This approach is significant because the BVN system links customer identities across the entire banking ecosystem. It means an affected individual cannot simply move funds from one bank to another to escape restrictions.

Once a BVN-linked PND is activated, the freeze potentially extends across all connected financial accounts nationwide. The scale of recovery already achieved also changes the broader narrative around the incident.

More than N12.34 billion has reportedly been successfully traced and isolated through the recovery process. About N8.15 billion remains within primary beneficiary accounts, while another N4.19 billion has been tracked across secondary transaction layers. Only a relatively smaller portion, estimated at roughly N1.32 billion, is believed to have escaped into physical cash withdrawals or external channels before account restrictions intensified.

Mathematically, the numbers also place the controversy into perspective. Against total annual transaction volumes exceeding N1.07 quadrillion, the N13.66 billion glitch represents roughly 0.0012 percent of processed value.

That translates to an operational success rate approaching 99.99 percent across one of the largest real-time payment ecosystems in the developing world.

The recent pre-Eid network congestion complaints should also be viewed through this same infrastructure lens. Holiday periods now generate massive transaction spikes as millions of Nigerians simultaneously move funds for travel, trade, salary payments, family support, and retail purchases.

What appears publicly as “network failure” is often the strain created by a digital economy expanding faster than underlying infrastructure capacity upgrades.

Nigeria’s financial ecosystem has effectively become a high-frequency transaction economy operating at an extraordinary scale. The current controversy, therefore, represents less of a systemic collapse and more of a stress test for the country’s regulatory and technological response mechanisms.

The more important takeaway is that the system identified the anomaly, mapped the transaction trail, isolated beneficiary accounts, activated legal recovery channels, and leveraged biometric identity infrastructure to pursue enforcement. That capability matters.

Many emerging economies still lack centralized settlement visibility strong enough to trace dispersed digital funds once they move across multiple institutions. Nigeria’s payment architecture now possesses that capability.

The incident also highlights the growing importance of continuous infrastructure investment as digital finance expands deeper into everyday commercial activity.

As transaction volumes continue climbing, payment switching infrastructure, fraud monitoring systems, reconciliation engines, and settlement frameworks will require constant upgrades to manage scale efficiently.

The broader lesson is that Nigeria’s cashless economy has become too large, too interconnected, and too economically important to be evaluated through the lens of isolated glitches alone.

The country is now operating one of Africa’s largest digital payment ecosystems, processing enormous transaction flows daily across banks, fintech platforms, merchants, and mobile channels. Infrastructural pressure is therefore inevitable.

What ultimately determines institutional credibility is not the absence of operational incidents, but the speed, transparency, traceability, and legal effectiveness of the response architecture.

On that front, the NIBSS recovery operation is gradually revealing that Nigeria’s digital banking ecosystem may be far more resilient than the public backlash initially suggested.

The event, attended by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Yemi Cardoso, marked a formal articulation of where Nigeria’s payments architecture is headed over the next four years, making it a significant platform for Oiwoh to state a position that goes beyond NIBSS’s internal advocacy.

Published on Thisdaylive

Nigeria’s inter-bank settlement infrastructure body wants Nigerians to stop choosing between keeping cash in their pockets and paying charges to move money digitally, and its chief executive made that argument publicly at one of the most consequential payments gatherings of the year.

Premier Oiwoh, Managing Director and Chief Executive of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), used his remarks at the official launch of Nigeria’s Payments System Vision 2028 to advocate for the complete elimination of transfer fees, arguing that charges on digital transactions are actively undermining the country’s financial inclusion goals and driving people back to cash.

The event, attended by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Yemi Cardoso, marked a formal articulation of where Nigeria’s payments architecture is headed over the next four years, making it a significant platform for Oiwoh to state a position that goes beyond NIBSS’s internal advocacy.

“I always tell people, if you have ten thousand in your pocket and I’m going to make a transfer and pay fifty or one hundred, that’s another ten thousand,” Oiwoh said during his address. “As a Nigerian, I now keep my ten thousand in my pocket. How do you deal with them?“

NIBSS advocates for zero-rated transfer fees

The framing was pointed. Oiwoh was not speaking abstractly about economic theory. He was describing a behavioural response that millions of Nigerians already exhibit, where the cost of digital transfer is weighed against the value being moved, and cash wins that calculation often enough to slow adoption. He argued that zero-rated fees would change that arithmetic entirely, making digital payments the default rather than the deliberate choice.

“I am an advocate of zero-rated fees for transfers,” he stated plainly.

This signals that the position is not new inside NIBSS but is now being pushed into public and regulatory conversation with greater urgency.

The remarks connect to a longer institutional trajectory. NIBSS has spent several years reducing the fees applied to NIP, the instant payment infrastructure that underpins virtually all Nigerian bank transfers.

The body previously outlined plans for a subscription-based model that would effectively allow users to make unlimited transfers within a fixed monthly charge, positioning zero-cost-per-transaction as an achievable destination rather than an aspiration.

Oiwoh’s language at the Vision 2028 launch suggests that ambition has not softened, and the policy window created by the new vision document may offer an opportunity to push it further.

Beyond fees, Oiwoh extended his argument to data access for financial transactions, making the case that Nigerians should not face a situation where a lack of mobile data prevents them from completing a payment.

“I don’t want to make a payment anywhere and then I have no data to make that payment when it has to do with finance and payments,” he said, pointing to countries that have already made financial data zero-rated and arguing that Nigeria should be among them, not following at a distance.

The comment lands in a country where mobile data costs remain a friction point for low-income users, and where the overlap between financial exclusion and digital exclusion is well-documented. Making payment data free to use, independent of a data bundle, would extend the reach of digital financial services to segments of the population that currently face a compounded access barrier.

Oiwoh closed his remarks with a broader confidence in what Nigeria’s payments infrastructure can now deliver. “With what we have built on the NPS, I think a lot more impact will be made from usage, accessibility, trust, and transparency across delivery processes,” he said, framing the Vision 2028 document as a foundation rather than an ambition, built on infrastructure that already exists and needs policy and pricing alignment to reach its potential.

The CBN has not yet issued a formal response to the zero-fee advocacy.

Published on Technext24

The digital shadows over Nigeria’s banking halls grew a little lighter last year. For years, a quiet war has been raging behind the glowing screens of smartphones and ATMs across the country.

Every tap, click, and transfer was a potential battlefield, with faceless cybercriminals working tirelessly to siphon away the hard-earned money of everyday Nigerians.

By 2024, the attackers were winning, breaching digital defenses to steal a staggering ₦52.26 billion. It felt like an unstoppable tide.

But then, the ecosystem fought back.

Banks tightened their algorithms, fintechs erected stronger digital fortresses, and everyday users grew wiser to the tricks of the trade.

According to the latest data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), this collective resistance paid off dramatically in 2025.

In a stunning plot twist for the fraudsters, digital payment fraud plummeted by 51 percent over the course of twelve months. The bleeding was effectively cut in half, with losses dropping to ₦25.85 billion.

While the war is far from over, and billions are still being chased through the digital ether, the narrative has shifted. Nigeria’s financial ecosystem proved that it is no longer an easy target; it’s a system that learns, adapts, and strikes back.

The figures were disclosed by Premier Oiwoh, the managing director and chief executive officer of NIBSS in Lagos, recently.

Addressing participants at the event themed ‘Shrinking Fraud Losses With ISO 20022 & Identity Management,’ Oiwoh noted that while the number of fraud cases has steadily declined over the past five years, the value of losses remains the key concern.

“Looking at industry fraud over the past five years, the number of cases has declined significantly. While case counts are important, what matters more is the value. In 2023, actual losses stood at about ₦17.67 billion.

In 2024, losses rose to ₦52.26 billion, largely driven by a single fraud incident of ₦31.1 billion involving one entity. In 2025, losses dropped significantly,” he said.

Data presented at the forum showed that fraud incidents fell from 123,918 in 2021 to 67,518 in 2025, with a small four per cent decline in the last year.

Geographically, Lagos accounted for 63.43 per cent of fraud activity, reflecting its role as Nigeria’s commercial hub.

Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), recorded 3.12 per cent, while Ogun, Rivers, and Delta States contributed between 2.09 per cent and 2.51 per cent of total fraud volume.

E-commerce and internet banking remain the channels most affected, followed by point-of-sale, mobile, and web platforms. Oiwoh highlighted social engineering, particularly insider abuse, as the most prevalent fraud technique.

“Insider involvement is high, and recent investigations have confirmed this. Services such as SIM swap fraud, account compromise, and phishing continue to evolve. Awareness remains critical, as many victims are still easily deceived,” he said.

The NIBSS boss stressed the importance of institutional controls, monitoring staff activity, and coordinated industry action.

According to Oiwoh, joint industry measures last year prevented about ₦20 billion in potential losses. Despite this, fraud reporting fell by 34 per cent in the final quarter of 2025.

“While some institutions reported zero incidents, non-reporting is unacceptable.

Reporting enables tracking and investigation. In several cases investigated last year, individuals involved in fraud simply moved to other institutions because incidents were not reported,” he added.

The forum also discussed the adoption of the ISO 20022 standard and identity management systems as tools to strengthen transaction security and reduce the risk of digital payment fraud.

Published on Techeconomy

The Central Bank of Nigeria has officially launched the Nigeria Payment System Vision (PSV) 2028, a strategy aimed at expanding financial inclusion to 95 per cent of the adult population in Nigeria’s digital payments system.

The CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, stated at the launch in Abuja on Monday that the PSV 2028, a roadmap designed to transform financial transactions, will strengthen Nigeria’s digital economy over the next three years.

He said the roadmap will help Nigeria attain faster digital payments and money transfers across all its regions by 2028.

Mr Cardoso said the initiative is expected to bring an estimated 50 million additional Nigerians into the formal financial system by 2028.

The CBN governor noted that the new framework builds on Nigeria’s progress in digital payments and seeks to accelerate the country’s transition towards a more inclusive, technology-driven ecosystem as it continues to lead Africa’s digital payments ecosystem.

“Today, we unveil more than a payment strategy. We unveil a vision for how Nigerians will transact, trade, save, invest, and participate in an increasingly digital economy.

“Over the past two decades, Nigeria’s payments ecosystem has evolved into one of the most dynamic and innovative in the world. From instant payments and digital adoption to fintech-led innovation, our progress has often set the pace on the continent.

“While this progress has not always been fully reflected in global narratives, its impact on economic activities, financial inclusion, and system resilience is evident across our economy,” he said.

He said the financial roadmap will also improve payment infrastructure, reduce reliance on cash transactions, and support the country’s economic growth.

The CBN governor stressed that financial inclusion must remain central to the country’s economic future, noting that millions of Nigerians are still outside the formal banking system.

“The PSV 2028 builds on the strong foundations, it provides a strategic roadmap for the next phase of transformation and reflects an ambition to build a payment ecosystem that’s secure, inclusive, resilient, and globally competitive.

“Inclusion and not exclusion must define our future. In 2023, a very large number of Nigerian adults will have access to financial services.

“Under Vision 2028, I would like to see this reaching 95 per cent inclusion. That means 50 million more market women, farmers, and young people will have a bank account or wallet in their name, with their name and BVN protecting them,” Mr Cardoso said.

CBN said the vision will modernise the national payments infrastructure in intra-African trade. The bank added that the vision will accelerate regional commerce and enhance export competitiveness.

According to CBN, actualisation of the vision will shape Nigeria from a passive participant in global finance into an active engine for continental economic integration.

Implementation
The CBN boss emphasised that payment infrastructure has become a strategic national asset capable of improving productivity, reducing transaction costs, increasing transparency, and supporting trade and investment.

According to him, the success of the PSV 2028 initiative would depend on implementation rather than policy documentation.

“The success of PSV 2028 will not be measured by the quality of the document. It will be measured by execution.

“This vision, therefore, calls for sustained collaboration from government agencies, financial institutions, fintech companies, technical providers, development partners, academia, and users of payment systems. Its success is a shared responsibility, ” Mr Cardoso said.

Under the Payment System Vision 2028, the CBN aims to reduce cash circulating outside the banking system to below 40 per cent of total currency in circulation.

The apex bank also plans to deploy more than 10 million QR-code and tap-to-pay acceptance points across markets, transport hubs, rural communities, and commercial centres nationwide.

In addition, the CBN targets reducing fraud losses to less than 0.001 per cent of total transactions by deploying artificial intelligence and advanced identity verification systems.

Mr Cardoso disclosed that the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) currently processes millions of instant transactions daily, with most settlements completed in less than 10 seconds.

He added that the apex bank plans to further improve transaction speed, reliability, and security as part of the new vision.

Transfer fees
Speaking at the launch panel of the Nigeria Payments Vision 2028, the CEO of NIBSS, Premier Oiwoh, advocated the control of transfer charges on digital transactions, saying transaction fees and data costs discourage the use of electronic payments.

Mr Oiwoh said excessive transfer charges discouraged users from transacting, noting that financial data and apps are supposed to be fee-free.

“And I always tell people, if you have N10,000 in your pocket and I’m going to make a transfer, I’ll pay N15, N100. That’s no longer N10,000. As a Nigerian, I’ll keep my N10,000 in my pocket.

“How do you deal with that? Also, I’m an advocate of zero transfer fees. I think financial data and apps should be zero-rated in terms of fees. I don’t want to make a payment anywhere and then discover I have no data to complete that payment. When it has to do with finance and payments, it should be zero-rated.

“It has already happened in some countries, and I think Nigeria needs to lead that. So with what we’ve built on NIBSS and the onboarding process, I think much more impact will be achieved in usage, accessibility, trust, and transparency across the payment ecosystem,” Mr Oiwoh said.

Published on Premium Times NG, Nairametrics, The Cable, The Nation and Leadership