Beyond financial inclusion, Nigeria’s central bank is chasing regional payments leadership
In the first half of 2007, Nigerians processed ₦946.22 million ($695,469) in point-of-sale (PoS) transactions. In the first quarter of 2025, that figure grew to ₦10.51 trillion ($7.73 billion).
The growth was the product of a series of policy decisions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which has spent nearly two decades trying to reduce the country’s reliance on cash and build a digital payments ecosystem through successive Payment System Vision (PSV) frameworks.
The first of those frameworks, (PSV) 2020, was launched in 2007 and focused on expanding electronic payments and modernising the country’s payment infrastructure. A second iteration, PSV 2025, followed in 2022, with a much stronger emphasis on financial inclusion, agent banking, interoperability, and the rails needed to support a digital economy.
PSV 2025 pushed formal financial inclusion to 64% from 56% in 2020. According to the CBN, agent banking networks expanded to more than two million agents nationwide, and electronic payment value has jumped by 203.51% since 2022 to ₦1.2 quadrillion ($880.51 billion) in 2025. The Bank Verification Number (BVN) system has also become a foundational digital identity layer with over 66 million unique IDs, the CBN noted.
However, approximately 26% of bankable adults remain financially excluded, and many Nigerians lack the know-how and confidence to use digital payment tools safely and effectively, the CBN said in the new PSV document. Despite the growth in electronic transactions, only 52% of adults actively use digital payments.
Those shortcomings partly formed the basis of PSV 2028, launched on June 1. It seeks to push financial inclusion to 95%, and also reveals a regulator increasingly focused on positioning Nigeria as a regional payments infrastructure hub, connecting African markets, supporting cross-border trade, deploying emerging technologies such as stablecoins and artificial intelligence, and strengthening cyber resilience across an increasingly interconnected financial ecosystem.
The strategy rests on five pillars: infrastructure, interconnectivity and interoperability; digital financial inclusion, consumer protection and financial literacy; innovation, digital assets and emerging technologies; cross-border payments and central bank digital currency integration; and regulation, risk management and cybersecurity.
Together, they offer a clear picture of how the CBN sees the future of payments in Nigeria.
CBN PSV 2028 Impact Simulator
Interact with the data to see how the central bank’s new policy targets shape cash, cross-border flows, and tech access.
Remittances 
Startup TAM 
Cyber Security
Sub-Saharan Africa has some of the world’s highest remittance costs, averaging 8.46%. PSV 2028 aims to deploy stablecoins, eNaira corridors, and PAPSS to bring costs down to ≤ 5%.
Currently, 52% of adults actively use digital payments. The CBN wants to push formal financial inclusion to 95% by 2028. Here is how that expands a startup’s Total Addressable Market (TAM).
*Calculations based on an estimated bankable adult population of 130 million.
As open banking and CBDCs expand the attack surface, fraud becomes a systemic risk. The CBN is aiming for a 70% drop in fraud losses by 2028 through an AI-powered National Payment SOC.
System Insight: Hitting this target requires banks to adopt common API standards and real-time biometric tracking to catch bad actors across interconnected networks.
Nigeria’s next payment opportunity is outside
Previous payment visions were largely domestic. The priorities were expanding electronic payments, increasing financial inclusion, reducing cash usage, and improving local payment infrastructure.
“CBN reforms (National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2022, eNaira, Open Banking, Regulatory Sandbox, and PSV 2025) have modernised domestic payments and interoperability, while Nigerian Fintech firms have expanded digital solutions across Africa,” the CBN said.
The regulator noted that the regional integration for payments remains limited.
The PSV 2028 repeatedly highlights the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), regional interoperability, cross-border settlements, CBDC corridors, regional liquidity pools, settlement banks, and digital trade infrastructure.
It proposes strengthening Nigeria’s integration with African payment systems while reducing dependence on foreign settlement currencies in regional trade.
“Cross-Border Settlements and PSV 2028 set out to close these gaps by harmonising regulatory standards within ECOWAS/AU, advancing bilateral CBDC corridors, upgrading digital infrastructure for secure real-time settlement, and deepening partnerships,” the CBN said.
“By aligning NIBSS and the eNaira with PAPSS and AfCFTA and leveraging over $20 billion in annual diaspora remittances, Nigeria can emerge as a core regional hub for trade settlement and remittances.”
Nigeria already possesses one of Africa’s most sophisticated payment ecosystems. Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Instant Payments processes billions of transactions annually, fintech adoption is among the highest on the continent, and digital payments have become deeply embedded in everyday commerce.
At the same time, Africa’s cross-border payments market remains fragmented, expensive, and heavily dependent on correspondent banking relationships outside the continent. Businesses trading across African markets often face multiple currency conversions, lengthy settlement times, and high transaction costs.
By positioning Nigerian infrastructure alongside PAPSS and AfCFTA initiatives, the CBN appears to be pursuing a role for Nigeria that goes beyond being Africa’s largest payments market.
The CBN intends to leverage stablecoins and CBDCs to navigate the currency hurdles. Because dollar-backed stablecoins such as USDT are pegged to the U.S. dollar, they can serve as a common settlement asset between countries with different currencies.
Instead of routing payments through multiple correspondent banks and foreign exchange conversions, participants can convert local currency into a stablecoin, transfer the value across borders almost instantly, and convert it into the recipient’s local currency.
According to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, stablecoins accounted for 43% of all crypto transaction volume in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2024. Many fintech companies, including Grey Business, Paga, and Flutterwave, are positioning stablecoins as practical payment rails for businesses engaged in international trade.
The CBN also wants to champion regional liquidity pools and settlement banks backed by Pan-African banks to support PAPPS and other Pan-African payments.
To take this further, the bank said it is focusing on launching potential bilateral CBDC corridors with Ghana, South Africa, or Egypt.
“Move eNaira and regulated stablecoins from conceptual tools to live cross-border corridors for trade flows and remittances,” it said.
To support that vision, the regulator is proposing deeper integration with PAPSS, regional settlement infrastructure, and a shared Nigeria Settlement Cloud that would connect domestic payment schemes, PAPSS, eNaira, SWIFT, remittance providers, and trade digitisation platforms through a common infrastructure layer.
If successful, the CBN said it could reduce the average remittance cost to ≤5%. Remittance to sub-Saharan Africa remains one of the most expensive at 8.46%, according to the World Bank.
Countries that control payment infrastructure often gain influence over trade flows, settlement networks, liquidity management, and financial integration.
Nigeria is not the only country viewing payment infrastructure as a strategic economic asset.
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), originally built to facilitate domestic instant payments, has increasingly expanded internationally through partnerships with countries including Singapore and Nepal to enable real-time cross-border remittances between the countries.
Cybersecurity is now a national infrastructure issue
As payment systems become more interconnected, the consequences of fraud and cyberattacks increase dramatically. A failure in one institution can quickly spread across multiple networks, payment rails, and financial service providers.
Rather than framing fraud as an operational problem for individual banks or fintechs, the CBN’s new PSV now views cybersecurity as a systemic risk capable of undermining trust in the entire financial system.
The strategy proposes a national fraud intelligence-sharing platform, a National Payment Security Operations Centre (SOC), predictive fraud monitoring powered by artificial intelligence and big data, and real-time risk management capabilities.
As Nigeria moves toward open banking, API-driven financial services, stablecoins, CBDCs, and regional payment corridors, the attack surface expands considerably.
The CBN’s cross-border ambitions cannot succeed without stronger cyber resilience. A country seeking to become a regional settlement hub cannot afford vulnerabilities in its core financial infrastructure. Fraud losses declined to ₦25.85 billion ($18.99 million) in 2025 from ₦52.27 billion ($38.42 million) in 2024, but the regulator is aiming for a 70% drop in fraud losses by 2028.
Innovation is moving from pilot projects to implementation
Under previous frameworks, technologies such as open banking, digital currencies, and blockchain largely existed as pilots, frameworks, or regulatory experiments with slow adoption.
PSV 2028 is adopting a different posture. Open Banking, which spent years in consultation and framework development, is now moving into implementation. The CBN plans to launch the National Open Banking Registry (NOBR) and standardise APIs across licenced institutions. Within the next year, Tier-1 and Tier-2 banks are expected to adopt common API standards.
The CBN also proposes defined use cases for CBDCs and stablecoins, including improving infrastructure for banks, settlement systems, and tokenised financial assets, and making settlement faster and cheaper for companies.
The document proposes a stablecoin regulatory framework, interoperability between the eNaira and regulated naira-backed stablecoins, and the deployment of both technologies for cross-border settlements, remittances, and tokenised financial assets.
Rather than debating whether digital assets belong in the financial system, the CBN is increasingly focused on determining how they should operate within it.
Biometric payments are also receiving greater attention.
“The vision, however, is to enable “invisible” payments built primarily on on-device biometrics (e.g., fingerprint, facial recognition) anchored in clear user controls and consent. BVN-NIN alignment will help reduce false rejects and strengthen transaction integrity, while PoS terminals (at merchant and agent locations) will serve as the first-line hubs for biometric acceptance, augmented over time with contactless and facial recognition options where adequate safeguards exist,” the CBN said.
Some PoS terminals are expected to begin supporting biometric transactions within the next year.
AI is expected to play a growing role in transaction routing, fraud detection, and operational efficiency across payment networks.
One big shift is also the inclusion of digital KYC, which aims to simplify the onboarding process for banks and financial institutions.
“Integrating digital identity into payment journeys enables faster onboarding, lower fraud, and consistent user experiences across channels. By verifying identity at the point of transaction, applying risk-based checks, and using tokenised identifiers that interoperate across payment and government systems, providers can protect privacy while improving approval rates and service reliability,” the bank said.
The CBN’s approach suggests that many of the technologies previously viewed as emerging are now considered essential components of future financial infrastructure.
The real challenge is execution
Viewed together, PSV 2028 points to a central bank that believes Nigeria has entered a new phase of payments development.
The focus is no longer simply on getting more Nigerians to adopt digital payments. It is about scaling the infrastructure that allows money, businesses, and markets to connect across borders.
The vision seeks to position Nigeria at the centre of Africa’s emerging digital economy while leveraging technologies such as stablecoins, CBDCs, open banking, artificial intelligence, and digital identity to support that goal.
Achieving regional payments leadership will require regulatory coordination across multiple countries, and the bank is aware of this.
“Encourage licence passporting via bilateral agreements with key trade partners and promote the establishment of an ECOWAS-wide Mutual Recognition Framework for licencing and supervision of PSPs, IMTOs, and stablecoin issuers, harmonised with AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocols and AU Digital Transformation Strategy (DTS 2030),” the CBN said.
The next three years will determine whether Nigeria can transform its payments success at home into influence across Africa, or whether PSV 2028 remains another ambitious strategy document waiting to be fully realised.
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