The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed all point-of-sale (PoS) operators and payment service providers to establish dual connectivity with the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) and Unified Payment Services Limited (UPSL) within 30 days, in a bid to curb persistent transaction failures across the payment system.
The directive is contained in a circular titled PSS/DIR/PUB/CIR/001/002, signed by the Director of the Payment System Supervision Department, Ms. Rakiya Yusuf. It applies to all acquirers, processors, aggregators and payment terminal service providers operating in Nigeria.
According to the apex bank, the policy builds on its September 2024 decision to end reliance on one-off transaction routing channels, which it said has contributed significantly to recurring service disruptions within the country’s cashless payments ecosystem.
Under the new framework, all PoS operators must maintain active connections with both licensed payment terminal service aggregators (NIBSS and UPSL) and configure their systems to support automatic failover. This will ensure smooth transaction switching whenever a channel experiences downtime.
The CBN explained that the measure aims to reduce frequent transaction failures that negatively impact merchants, consumers and businesses, particularly in the retail and informal sectors where PoS terminals remain a primary means of payment.
To strengthen system resilience and enforce compliance, NIBSS and UPSL have been mandated to conduct periodic system testing with financial institutions and report the results to the CBN. The two exchange companies must also provide real-time notifications to banks during system outages and submit detailed incident reports to the Payment System Supervision Department within 24 hours, describing the causes of the failures and corrective actions taken.
The 30-day compliance deadline, which extends until mid-January 2026, puts significant pressure on an industry that processes millions of transactions daily as Nigeria accelerates its transition to digital financial services.
Failures in PoS transactions remain a persistent challenge despite previous regulatory interventions by the CBN, including the introduction of geotagging requirements in August. While industry stakeholders have welcomed the dual connectivity mandate as a critical step toward stabilizing payments infrastructure, some operators have raised concerns about integration costs and the tight implementation timeline.
Analysts say the directive could significantly improve transaction success rates and restore confidence in electronic payments, although smaller payment terminal service providers may face operational and financial hurdles in meeting the deadline.
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