The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has given a one-month deadline for all Acquirers, Processors, Payment Terminal Service Aggregators (PTSAs), and Payment Terminal Service Providers (PTSPs) to establish dual connectivity for Point of Sale (POS) transactions with both the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) and Unified Payment Services Limited (UPSL).
This move is designed to address concerns arising from routing all POS transactions through a single aggregator, which has caused reliability issues.
In a circular signed by Dr. Rakiya Yusuf, Director of Payments System Supervision, the CBN requires that all relevant service providers maintain active connections with both licensed aggregators, NIBSS and UPSL. Additionally, POS systems must be configured to allow automatic failover between the two aggregators, ensuring transactions can continue smoothly if one service experiences downtime.
To ensure effectiveness, NIBSS and UPSL, in partnership with regulated financial institutions, will carry out periodic testing to validate system resilience and the failover mechanism. Both aggregators are also mandated to notify banks immediately of any system downtime or disruptions.
Furthermore, they must inform the CBN’s Payments System Supervision Department within 24 hours, detailing the nature of the issue, its causes, and the corrective steps taken.
All regulated financial institutions are expected to fully comply with this directive within one month of the date of the circular.
