A new payment platform built around open technology is intended to give Nigeria’s interbank infrastructure greater flexibility as banks and customers demand more digital services. The Nigeria Inter Bank Settlement System has introduced a National Payment Stack designed to support a wider range of electronic transactions while giving the organization more control over the technology underpinning the country’s payments network. The platform was developed by NIBSS using technology from United States based Transactility, including its jPTS transaction switching system. It incorporates the ISO 20022 financial messaging standard, which supports richer and more structured transaction information.
The new infrastructure is designed to accommodate instant account transfers, QR code merchant payments, bulk disbursements and transactions initiated with alternative identifiers such as mobile telephone numbers. An important feature of the arrangement is access to the underlying source code and the ability to customize the platform. That approach could allow local engineers to develop services and introduce upgrades without depending entirely on the product schedules of proprietary technology suppliers. Managing Director Premier Oiwoh said the system was conceived with the scale and changing requirements of Nigeria’s payment market in mind. The organization expects the modular architecture to support future improvements as transaction volumes grow and regulatory requirements evolve.
The deployment builds on the jPOS technology ecosystem, which has been used in transaction processing for many years. Transactility’s founder and chief technology officer, Alejandro Revilla, described the project as an example of how open technology can be adapted for large national payment systems. ISO 20022 has gained international importance because it enables financial institutions to exchange more detailed payment information in a consistent format. Its adoption can support interoperability and additional services, although the benefits depend on implementation by participating institutions. NIBSS operates key elements of Nigeria’s interbank clearing and settlement infrastructure and provides services connected with electronic payments and the Bank Verification Number system. The introduction of the National Payment Stack does not, by itself, establish that transfers will immediately become cheaper or faster. Those outcomes will depend on integration, operational reliability and adoption across the banking and payments ecosystem.
