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Card and POS rails are governed by the CBN Guidelines on Operations of Electronic Payment Channels in Nigeria (2020), the POS Card Acceptance Guidelines, the Card Issuance & Usage Guidelines and the 2016 Interchange Fee circular, all enforced by the CBN with NIBSS as the central infrastructure operator. Three main card schemes operate (Visa, Mastercard and the domestic Verve by Interswitch), now joined by the CBN/NIBSS-backed national domestic scheme AfriGo (launched January 2023) to cut FX leakage. Only CBN-licensed institutions may be acquirers; PCI DSS, EMV chip-and-PIN and PA-DSS are mandated; and merchants are prohibited from surcharging cardholders. NIBSS was sole Payment Terminal Service Aggregator until Unified Payments was licensed as a second PTSA in April 2024.
The rules layer is detailed and prescriptive. CBN Guidelines on Operations of Electronic Payment Channels (2020) and the POS Card Acceptance Guidelines require only CBN-licensed institutions to act as acquirers, mandate PCI DSS / PA-DSS / P2PE compliance and EMV chip-and-PIN, bar card schemes (or entities they own 20% or more of) from acquiring, prohibit merchant surcharging, and require disputed POS transactions to be resolved within five working days. A September 2024 circular requires all PSPs to route POS operations through one of two licensed PTSAs — NIBSS since 2011 and Unified Payment Services as the second PTSA from April 2024. The April 2024 second-PTSA licensing breaks NIBSS's 13-year monopoly, a notable infrastructure shift. These rules apply to bank-PSP acquirers; the acquirer-licensing restriction is the firm-type gate.
Outlook
Scheme and network compliance is escalating, driven by AfriGo's competitive entry and the breaking of the NIBSS PTSA monopoly. The cross-current to watch is incumbent-scheme interest in Nigerian rails even as a sovereign scheme competes domestically (see the Visa–Moniepoint stake in W13).
no periodic updates on record for this sub-brief
Sources and findings (5)
- T1https://www.cbn.gov.ng/out/2020/ccd/reviewed%20and%20approved%20guidelines%20on%20operations%20of%20electronic%20payment%20channels%20in%20nigeria%202020.pdfretrieved
- T1https://www.cbn.gov.ng/cashless/POS_GUIDELINES_August2011_FINAL_FINAL%20(2).pdfretrieved
- T3https://pavestoneslegal.com/regulatory-update-the-central-bank-of-nigerias-national-domestic-card-scheme/retrieved
- T3https://pavestoneslegal.com/fintech-regulation-in-nigeria-cbn-directives-on-payment-terminal-services/retrieved
- T1https://www.cbn.gov.ng/PaymentsSystem/retrieved