In order to accommodate new entrants into the digital banking industry, the deployment of point of sale (PoS) machines will increase in the upcoming months.
Despite difficulties, a large number of cardholders, particularly those at the grassroots, who had previously been wary about digital banking and the security of their assets, are embracing the program.
As more people take use of the digital payment option, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) anticipates that PoS deployment and use will increase in the upcoming months.
According to analysts, mobile banking and PoS services have long dominated the digital banking industry. They are all a part of the digital banking network, the new path taken by financial service providers and regulators to deliver seamless services to the banked, encouraging the unbanked and underbanked to participate in the financial services industry.
Cardholders have, however, recently experienced poor network connectivity and transaction failures that take weeks or months to fix.
Major networks and institutions are experiencing problems with the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), which for years predominated the payment sector.
Support for cardholders is anticipated as a result of the agreement between the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) Plc to launch the National Domestic Card Scheme for the Nigerian market.
The action is in line with the CBN’s mission to advance the financial and payment system’s stability, inclusiveness, and growth.
The debut date for the card program is January 16, 2023.
Osita Nwanisobi, the CBN’s director of corporate communications, said in a statement that the CBN’s aggressive policy actions had sped up the adoption of digital financial services in Nigeria.
According to him, the central switch of Nigeria, Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) Plc, will deliver the national domestic card program alongside the Bankers Committee and other participants in the financial ecosystem.
According to him, the initiative “will promote innovation within the Nigerian domestic market, while enabling African and international interoperability, allowing banks and other institutions to offer a variety of solutions including debit, credit, virtual, loyalty, and tokenized cards among others.”
Nigeria is in an excellent position to successfully introduce a national card program, according to the official: “Considering the strength and breadth of its banking industry and the tremendous expansion and transformation of its payments system over the last decade.”
According to him, Nigeria’s economy is still the most dynamic in Africa, benefiting from the rapid speed of innovation and digitization as well as rising mobile penetration.
“Building on this foundation requires infrastructure that can enable lower-cost payment services that are easier for Nigerians to access and afford. Domesticating our card program also improves data sovereignty, allows for the creation of locally relevant goods and services, and lowers the demand for foreign currency, according to him.
According to Nwanisobi, the program can also be used as a platform for the seamless distribution of government-to-person payments and other social impact programs, improving financial access and fostering the development of a strong and inclusive digital economy.
“Nigeria joins a growing list of nations — with India, Turkey, China, and Brazil serving as leading examples — that have introduced domestic card programs and reaped the transformative benefits for their respective payments and financial systems, particularly for the underbanked,” he said.
The CBN acknowledges the substantial advantages of launching Africa’s first central bank-driven domestic card program, which, if scaled up, has the potential to grow to be the continent’s and one of the world’s largest.
