The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has mandated a major upgrade to the country’s electronic payments routing, giving regulated institutions one month to implement dual connectivity for Point-of-Sale (PoS) transactions. Detailed in a circular dated December 11, 2025, the directive aims to reduce downtime and improve the reliability of digital payments by requiring PoS transaction routing to be connected to Nigeria’s two licensed Payment Terminal Service Aggregators (PTSAs), the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) and Unified Payment Services Limited (UPSL).
A Strategic Mandate for Payment Stability
In a move to strengthen Nigeria’s digital payments infrastructure, the CBN issued an update to its earlier PoS routing guidance from September 2024. The circular, signed by Rakiya O. Yusuf, Director of the Payments System Supervision Department, gives banks, acquirers, processors, and payment service providers one month from the circular date to reach full compliance, effectively setting the deadline at around mid-January 2026.
Eliminating Single Points of Failure
At the core of the directive is a requirement that all acquirers, processors, and payment terminal service providers maintain active links with both NIBSS and UPSL. The dual-connectivity setup is intended to reduce reliance on a single routing channel and requires automatic failover, allowing transactions to switch seamlessly to the alternative aggregator if one experiences downtime.
Enhanced Oversight and Reporting Protocols
The circular also tightens reporting requirements. In the event of downtime or service disruption, NIBSS and UPSL must notify affected banks immediately and submit an incident report to the CBN’s Payments System Supervision function within 24 hours, detailing the cause, impact, and corrective actions taken.
Mandating Rigorous System Testing
To ensure resilience, the CBN directed NIBSS and UPSL to work with regulated institutions to conduct periodic redundancy and failover tests that demonstrate the effectiveness of the dual-routing setup. These test outcomes will feed into the central bank’s ongoing oversight of the payments ecosystem.
Implications for Nigeria’s Cashless Economy
The directive targets a long-standing issue in Nigeria’s cashless push, where PoS terminals are central to daily commerce and persistent outages have frustrated merchants and consumers. By requiring dual connectivity and automatic switching between aggregators, the CBN aims to improve transaction success rates and strengthen confidence in digital payments.
In conclusion, the CBN’s directive represents a decisive step toward strengthening Nigeria’s PoS infrastructure against systemic failures. With compliance due one month after December 11, 2025, industry participants must move quickly to implement dual connectivity, failover capability, and enhanced reporting requirements to support a more stable and reliable digital payments ecosystem.