Payments System Vision 2025

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) launched and officially presented to the public the Payments System Vision 2025 (PSV 2025) on November 24, 2022. The Vision provides a five-year strategic roadmap for the Nigeria payments system to strengthen adoption of electronic payment, enhance safety, reliability and resilience of the system, account for new products and participants, foster financial inclusion and catalyse Nigeria's economic growth and development.

The emerging payments initiatives and schemes identified to achieve the above objectives are captured in the PSV 2025 with 10 (ten) key recommendations highlighted below to further facilitate the following objectives:
  1. The CBN will review the core payments infrastructure and switching platform to ensure continued capability to meet payments demand. The potentials for Request for Payment (RfP) schemes will also be reviewed and the deployment of contactless solutions, contactless cards, and quick response code etc will be facilitated.
  2. Create Open Banking roadmap for Nigeria, define a library of APIs supported by local market and consider the implementation of a regulatory sandbox that is appropriate for the Nigerian market.
  3. Drive Agent Banking initiative and support the industry to explore solution that aid financial inclusion to accelerate the availability of basic banking and financial services to the unbanked.
  4. Explore Blockchain solution such as Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) for the Naira, monitor the deployment of Blockchain solutions and the potentials for "Smart Contract" solutions in other countries to develop strategy for their possible adoption in Nigeria.
  5. Develop a regulatory framework for potential implementation of "Stable Coins", and work with Securities & Exchange Commission to jointly develop regulatory framework for Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) in the event of the adoption of ICO-based investment solution in Nigeria.
  6. Identify use cases for Big Data that has potential access to data in the payments system as well as support economic analysis.
  7. Review the minimum-security requirements for banks to ensure they reflect the current industry best practices. The payments system architecture will also be reviewed to ensure that the minimum standards for user authentication are included as part of a multi-layer security solution.
  8. Continue to support the use of Bank Verification Number (BVN) as an effective tool to check fraud in addition to exploring more potential use of BVN.
  9. Request banks to strengthen consumer protection by issuing minimum required standards for swifter dispute resolution in Nigeria.
  10. Interoperability shall continue to be a core principle of payments system in Nigeria. The tests to ensure compliance and license renewal, shall continue to form part of periodic assessment of Payments Service Providers.

OVERSIGHT

In its effort to strengthen the oversight of the payments system, the Bank established the Oversight and Compliance Division (OCD) in the Payments System Management Department for effective monitoring of existing and planned payments system.
The OCD activities include but are not limited to monitoring and oversight functions (onsite and offsite) on the payments system in Nigeria with particular reference to functions of Card and Payment Schemes (Schemes) Switching and Processing Companies (Switches), Mobile Money Operators (MMOs), Payment Terminals Service Providers (PTSPs), Payments Solution Service Providers (PSSPs), Payment Terminal Service Aggregators (PTSAs) and other Payment Service Providers.
In this regard, the Bank has issued various licences to Payment Service Providers for operation in the Nigerian payments system.