Top regulators, bank chiefs and fintech founders gathered in Abuja on Monday with a shared mission and a shared warning. Nigeria’s payment system is world-class. But millions are still locked out. Here is the plan to change that and the hard questions nobody is dodging.
By the time the panellists took their seats at the Afreximbank African Trade Centre (AATC) in Abuja on Monday morning, something unusual was already clear: this was not a routine policy launch.
Seated together were the CBN Governor, the head of the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), the Director General of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), the MD of Nigeria Interbank Settlement Systems (NIBSS), the CEO of Moniepoint, the COO of OPay, the MD of Remita, and the CEO of SANEF. Rarely would you easily find so many of the people who actually shape how money moves in Nigeria sitting together in one room — and speaking with such unusual candour.
Sterling Bank CEO Abubakar Suleiman, who moderated the panel, captured the moment best: “The media should take note of this. We will look back one day and see this is what it looked like when regulators worked together.”
What they were gathered to launch was the Nigeria Payments System Vision 2028 — a 30-month blueprint to transform Nigeria’s digital payments ecosystem into one of the most advanced on the planet. But more than a document, it was a public commitment, held up to scrutiny by the very people responsible for delivering it.
Nigeria Is Already World-Class — And Barely Anyone Outside Knows It
The opening revelation of the day came not from a policy paper but from a panel of practitioners who have spent decades building the system from scratch.
NIBSS MD Premiere Olanrewaju delivered what amounted to a quiet bombshell: “For the first time anywhere in the world, before anybody mentioned PSD2 or open banking, right here in Nigeria, we achieved interbank balances on home-grown technology.”
In other words, Nigeria pioneered open banking before Europe gave it a name. And yet, as Olanrewaju noted with visible frustration, “We have allowed the world to shift the narrative.”
CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso agreed. “Many innovations that other countries are only now experiencing have been part of our system for years,” he said. “We must celebrate these successes. Nigeria’s dynamic fintech ecosystem has driven financial inclusion and positioned the country as a hub of innovation in Africa.”
OPay’s Dotun Obanyan put it simply: Nigeria’s payment system is one of the cheapest in the world. “Cost is very important,” he noted, “and we are continuing on that trajectory.”
The SEC’s Dr Emomotimi Agama, who recently addressed a class at Harvard Business and Law School on Nigeria’s digital finance progress, described going to Canada and being asked to explain what RTGS means, a system Nigeria has operated for years. “That tells you clearly where we are in this whole array,” he said. “We must begin to speak the way we should speak and tell our stories wherever we go.”
The 80% Problem: Who Is Nigeria’s Payment Revolution Really For?
The most uncomfortable question of the day came from moderator Suleiman, directed squarely at the panel: “Most of the products and services in our ecosystem cater to the top 20% of the population. Why are we still innovating for only the top 20% and not the bottom 80%?”
The silence that followed said as much as the answers that came.
Mrs Uche Uzoechina of SANEF — the only woman on the panel, introduced last and most pointedly — was direct. Agent banking has transformed reach, she acknowledged. But the people at the base still face barriers that make participation irrational.
“Why should a mama in the market want to transact ₦5,000 and we are telling her to pay ₦15?” she asked. “She will say no. She would rather put her money under the table.”
READ ALSO:
- Why CBN, Other Regulators Are Finally Talking About the Fees That Hurt Ordinary People
- CBN Rate Hold: Nigerians Face Prolonged High Borrowing Costs – Experts Warn
- Insecurity Drains Up to ₦7tn Yearly, Squeezes Nigeria’s Economy — CBN
The bigger picture, she argued, is not just about transaction fees. It is about economic inclusion in its fullest sense. “If we make it difficult, economic inclusion will not happen. We need to make everything affordable — and if possible, free — for them.”
Olanrewaju of NIBSS – whose organisation processes millions of transactions daily, largely for small businesses and informal traders – agreed and proposed three specific interventions that he has advocated globally:
One: Put smartphones into the hands of every Nigerian. Phase out feature phones. Without them, the rest is impossible.
Two: Eliminate transfer fees, or at minimum make them negligible. “If someone has ₦10,000 and I charge them ₦50 to ₦100 per transfer, I am eating into their savings,” he said.
Three: Zero-rate financial data. “I should not be unable to make a payment because I have run out of data. When a transaction is financial in nature, the data used for it should not attract a charge.”
The Fraud Problem That Is Bigger Than Any One Regulator
While much of the conversation was optimistic, one challenge dominated: fraud.
Nigeria’s payment ecosystem has grown so fast that criminal networks have kept pace — and in some areas, pulled ahead. SIM-swap fraud, cross-border cybercrime, and compromised POS terminals are all on the rise.
NCC’s Dr Maida described the experience of tracing a fraudulent transaction, only to find the infrastructure being used was located outside Nigeria entirely. “You begin tracing a connection, and before long, you have crossed our borders — only to hit a wall.”
OPay’s Obanyan framed the challenge in systemic terms. “Innovation in Nigeria may be outpacing the trust and security challenge,” he said. “We need to close that gap—without slowing down the innovation that has brought us this far.”
The answer, all agreed, was collaboration. Not just between Nigerian institutions, but with regional counterparts. PSV 2028 explicitly targets cross-border payment integration — including through PAPSS, the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System — as a mechanism for both expanding trade and tightening accountability.
Olanrewaju of NIBSS pointed out that Nigeria is also leading on cybersecurity — a fact that rarely gets told. “Many economies would not have survived what we have navigated. We are leading in cybersecurity too. But nobody is telling that story either.”
The 8 Metrics That Will Decide Whether PSV 2028 Succeeds or Fails
If Monday’s event had one theme that united every speaker across every session, it was this: accountability.
Obanyan proposed a quarterly public dashboard — tracking eight quarters from now until December 2028 — with specific, measurable commitments. His suggested metrics:
- NIN-linked digital transactions: How many Nigerians with a National Identification Number are actively transacting digitally? This is the true inclusion number.
- Device penetration: How many devices capable of supporting digital payments are in active use across Nigeria?
- Transaction failure rates: Is the percentage of failed or disputed transactions falling?
- NPS of the financial ecosystem: Do Nigerians actually trust and recommend the system they use?
- Cost trajectory: Are fees continuing to fall, particularly for low-value transactions?
- Cross-border payment volumes: Is Nigeria growing its share of regional trade settlement?
- Financial data accessibility: Is zero-rating or subsidised data for financial transactions becoming a reality?
- Global narrative metrics: Is Nigeria’s story being told — and heard — in global conversations about payment innovation?
CBN Deputy Governor Dr Muhammad Sani Abdullahi gave perhaps the clearest summary of what success looks like: “Its success will be measured not by the speed of transactions alone, but by its contribution to investment, productivity, job creation, and long-term prosperity.”
What PSV 2028 Means for the Average Nigerian
Strip away the acronyms, and PSV 2028 is a promise to three kinds of Nigerians.
To the market trader in Aba, it promises cheaper transactions, better coverage, and the ability to receive payment from anyone, anywhere, at minimal cost.
To the small business owner in Kano, it promises interoperable systems, faster settlements, and eventually, seamless access to buyers across Africa through the African Continental Free Trade Area.
To the young professional in Lagos, it promises a more trusted, more secure system where innovation keeps moving but fraud does not win.
Whether those promises are kept will not be decided in a hall in Abuja. It will be decided in the millions of daily choices made by regulators, banks, fintechs, telecoms companies, and ordinary Nigerians – one transaction at a time, across 30 months, eight quarters, and a country of 200 million people.
The clock, as Olanrewaju reminded the room, started Monday.
“This is June 1st – a landmark date.”
Sunday Michael Ogwu is a Nigerian journalist and editor of Pinnacle Daily. He is known for his work in business and economic reporting. He has held editorial roles in prominent Nigerian media outlets, where he has focused on economic policy, financial markets, and developmental issues affecting Nigeria and Africa more broadly.