Retail Payment Systems
In the OIC Member Countries
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Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is the regulatory body that control and administer overall
monetary and financial sector policies of the Federal Government of Nigeria (1958 Act of
Parliament, amended in 2007). In particular, CBN enacted a Payment Systems Management Bill
to address the absence of law that explicitly and exclusively deals with payments systems in
Nigeria.
On the other hand, there is also the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) that
supervise the payment systems in the country (according to NDIC Act 2006). Both CBN and
NDIC provides the oversight function to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the nation’s
payment system.
The key players in the Nigerian payment systems are banks, discount houses, Nigeria Inter-
Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), Nigeria Stock Exchange, payment service providers
(including mobile money operators, payment terminal service providers/PTSP) and switching
companies (such as Chams, ERG, Interswitch, Transact, etc.).
Large Value Payment Systems
CBN commenced the operations of the Real Time Gross Settlement System in December 2006.
The CBN RTGS (Central Bank of Nigeria Inter-bank Fund Transfer - CIFT) System interfaces
with the core banking application (T24 System) and has all the deposit money bank and
discount houses as direct participants.
A new RTGS System was deployed on December 18, 2013 along with Central Securities
Depository (CSD). The purpose of the replacement of the old RTGS System is to have a robust
system that will meet all the users' requirements and addresses all the challenges with the old
system.
Retail Payment Systems
Mobile Payments
Nigeria has powerful and experienced players in the traditional card payments business, as
well as ambitious new entrants in the mobile money arena. The CBN has issued 11 provisional
licenses for mobile payments to various licensees-Eartholeum, Ecobank, e-Tranzact, FET,
Fortis Mobile Money, GTBank Mobile Money, M-Kudi, Monitise, Pagatech, Paycom and
UBA/Afripay. Full licenses are to be granted pending the rectification of certain problems
encountered during the pilot phase. Further operators have been issued approvals in-principle