The Nigeria Inter Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) Plc has begun the rollout of the National Payment Stack (NPS), recording 26.55 million transactions valued at N1.4 trillion across 48 participating institutions. The NPS is a sovereign, ISO 20022 compliant digital infrastructure designed to succeed legacy NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) system and modernise Nigeria’s financial ecosystem. The NPS unifies payments, identity, and data onto a single intelligent rail, the multi-currency architecture bridges transaction processing and payment intelligence while establishing robust cross-border capabilities.

Data from NIBSS showed that First Bank of Nigeria leads the industry in total transaction volume, while Fidelity Bank holds the lead in overall transaction value. Other key early adopters driving network scale also include Guaranty Trust Bank, Sterling Bank, Access Bank and Moniepoint. Speaking on the rollout, managing director and chief executive of NIBSS, Premier Oiwoh, said “the National Payment Stack represents is an economic catalyst moving our financial infrastructure from basic transaction processing to comprehensive payment intelligence.

By delivering an ISO 20022-compliant, multi-currency rail, we are laying the groundwork for unprecedented interoperability, heightened security, and seamless regional trade.” He further emphasized that complete ecosystem readiness relies heavily on full participant alignment across technical and operational fronts. “To guarantee an optimal transaction experience for end-users, it is imperative that all participating financial services institutions immediately activate all related messages and fund transfer credit and debit processing rails.

NIBSS remains committed to providing continuous technical support, detailed guidelines, and integration assistance to help institutions achieve full compliance with KYC validation standards and optimize API consumption. “This proactive engagement will prevent platform congestion, enforce proper usage standards, and safeguard system performance as we work together with all institutions to complete integration for Funds Transfer Debit and advanced messaging capabilities. Ultimately, our shared objective is to achieve a seamless, full industry cut-over to the National Payment Stack as we prepare to decommission our 15-year-old legacy NIP rail.”

Also, Director of the Payments System Supervision Department at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Rakiya Opemi Yusuf, urged financial institutions nationwide to accelerate their NPS integration during a recent working visit to NIBSS Headquarters.

Her statement reaffirms the apex bank’s mandatory and full regulatory support for the ISO 20022 standard in Nigeria’s payment system. The NPS platform introduces key operational and structural advances across the financial sector, ISO 20022 Data Architecture: Enables structured, metadata-rich transactions that automate corporate reconciliation, streamline merchant collections, and power request-to-pay invoicing.

It also consolidates single transfers and high-volume corporate disbursements onto one platform, supporting direct debits, asynchronous processing, and deferred settlement options.

As Published in Leadership NG, Thisday, Punch NG, Daily Trust and Business Day