CBN to Review Payment System Vision Strategy
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has unveiled plans to review backward its 10-year Payment Systems Vision (PSV-2030) strategy, which will now span a five-year strategy and renamed as PSV-2025.

The CBN said the review payment system vision strategy is in response to evolving development of blockchain technology and other payment systems disruptions.
The Apex Bank had declared that it had commenced the implementation process of the PSV 2030 to replace the PSV 2020, which aims to significantly reduce financial exclusion, promote electronic banking and other alternative banking channels.
CBN director, Payment Systems Management Department, Mr. Musa Jimoh, spoke on the review of the strategy at First Bank’s FinTech Summit 4.0, where stakeholders gathered to deliberate on ‘How Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence will Disrupt FinTech in Nigeria.’
Jimoh said that the CBN was working on breaking down the licences for operators in the financial technology sector to allow small players in the industry access markets as it works on harmonising data in the financial sector, among other initiatives that would deepen the payment systems framework in Nigeria.
Jimoh, while speaking on the payment system vision of CBN, said: “Because of the ability of changes in technology is so high, we cannot wait 10 years to begin to review our strategies again.
“So, what we are proposing is to have a five-year strategy, which would then be called PSV-2025. And once we get approval for this, we would be looking at initiatives for the next five years.”
Speaking on how to expand the payment systems, Jimoh said: “Some of the initiatives we have put on the table, and some of the things we are trying to implement to deepen acceptance of payment systems and open the market for innovators and small businesses to enter the terrain.
“First is the regulatory sandbox, which is already in the public which we shared a draft framework for people to comment and then get back to us. We have gotten a lot of feedback and I am happy enough to announce that we are working together with the financial conduct authority in the United Kingdom in developing this regulatory sandbox and eventually we would customise it to our environment to ensure that it fits into our own ecosystem.
“Second is the open banking regime, which we have started working on in order to allow the entire ecosystem to work symbiotically. We want a situation where there would be no exclusivity on account data being held by banks again.
“Banks should be able to open up their accounts database and let fintech companies and other small companies add value-added services on account information they hold.”
According to him, the plans would also enable the market to be more resilient and responsible.
“There are other initiatives that are coming up but we need to focus on these ones because we know they would basically drive the ecosystem into the future.
“Also, on artificial intelligence and big data, what the CBN is trying to do is to see how we can harmonise this data and provide a database where people can slice dice and trend what the future of payment holds in terms of the activities that have happened within the payment infrastructure,” he added.
Commenting on small companies being able to participate, he noted: “We like to create an environment where small companies that don’t have the financial muscle to take licence from CBN can also participate.
“What we have done now is to tier our licences basically to collapse our licences into four categories, so we would be coming with a new licensing model that would enable the small companies to come into the forum without going through those stringent conditions that the regulars would impose on big companies.
“These are the things we are looking to implement in the next five years.”