Nigeria’s digital payments industry is entering a new phase as the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) deploys its National Payment Stack (NPS) using technology from United States-based Transactility Inc. The platform combines locally developed payment capabilities with open-source technology to support instant transfers, QR payments, bulk disbursements and other digital financial services.
The partnership comes as Nigeria’s electronic payments market continues to expand. The Central Bank of Nigeria reported that the NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) system processed approximately 5.63 billion transactions worth ₦476.89 trillion in the first half of 2024. Both figures increased from the second half of 2023, when the platform handled 4.85 billion transactions valued at ₦343.94 trillion.
The economic opportunity extends beyond faster bank transfers. A modern national payment infrastructure can reduce transaction friction, improve business efficiency and provide a foundation for financial technology innovation. However, its long-term value will depend on reliability, security, adoption and the ability of financial institutions to integrate their systems effectively.
Why Nigeria Needs a New Payment Infrastructure
Nigeria has established itself as a major African market for instant digital payments. Millions of individuals and businesses use electronic transfers to settle purchases, pay suppliers, receive salaries and move money between bank accounts.
Yet the growth of digital transactions places increasing demands on the infrastructure connecting banks, fintech companies, merchants and payment service providers. The system must process transactions quickly while maintaining accuracy, security and dependable service.
NIBSS developed the National Payment Stack to address these requirements. The platform uses a modular architecture that combines technologies developed by NIBSS with selected open-source and enterprise components supplied by technology partners.
According to TheCable’s October 13, 2026 report, NIBSS selected Transactility’s jPTS switching platform, which builds on the established jPOS technology framework, as a foundation for NPS.
The development is important because payment infrastructure has become an essential component of economic activity. When a customer transfers money to a retailer, a company pays its suppliers or a government agency disburses funds, the transaction depends on systems that must communicate and process instructions correctly.
A stronger payment platform can reduce operational friction across these activities. It can also give financial institutions a common technological foundation for introducing new services.
For Nigeria, the priority is no longer simply to expand digital payments. It is to ensure that the infrastructure supporting them can accommodate a larger economy and increasingly sophisticated financial services.
How Transactility’s Technology Supports NPS
The technical foundation of NPS combines jPOS with jPTS, a payment-switching platform developed within the Transactility technology ecosystem.
A payment switch routes transaction instructions between participating institutions. It helps determine where a transaction should go, communicates the relevant instructions and supports the processing required to complete the payment.
NIBSS has used jPOS technology in its payment infrastructure for years, particularly for processing transactions under the ISO 8583 messaging standard.
The National Payment Stack introduces support for ISO 20022, a newer international financial messaging standard that provides a richer and more structured way to communicate payment information.
The distinction is important. Payment systems must exchange more than instructions to transfer money. They also need information that supports transaction identification, reconciliation, compliance and operational reporting.
ISO 20022 can provide a more structured basis for exchanging this information. When institutions implement the standard consistently, better data quality can improve payment processing and help financial institutions manage transactions more effectively.
However, adopting the standard does not automatically eliminate fraud, prevent errors or guarantee faster settlement. Those outcomes depend on system design, institutional integration, risk controls and the quality of implementation.
NIBSS’s approach also combines established technology with local engineering. Rather than relying entirely on a closed commercial platform, the organisation can use accessible source code to develop capabilities suited to Nigeria’s market.
That flexibility could become increasingly valuable as transaction volumes rise and regulators introduce new requirements.
Why Open-Source Technology Matters
One of the partnership’s most important implications concerns technological control.
Payment infrastructure is a strategic national asset. Excessive dependence on a single proprietary vendor can create challenges when an operator needs to change product features, upgrade systems or respond to new regulations.
Open-source technology can reduce some of these constraints by giving the operator access to source code and greater freedom to customise its systems.
According to the announcement, NIBSS retains control of NPS’s architecture, product development and operational direction. It also retains ownership of the intellectual property developed specifically by NIBSS for the platform.
This arrangement could give Nigeria greater control over the development of its domestic payment infrastructure.
NIBSS Managing Director and Chief Executive Premier Oiwoh explained the rationale behind the approach.
“The NPS was designed and built for the scale and demands of the Nigerian payments market,” he said. “The jPOS ecosystem gives us the flexibility to continue developing the platform as the ecosystem evolves.”
His statement identifies a central advantage of the architecture: the ability to adapt the platform as market requirements change.
For Nigeria, this could support faster product development and reduce dependence on a vendor’s commercial release schedule.
Nevertheless, open-source technology is not cost-free. NIBSS must maintain qualified engineering teams, review software vulnerabilities, manage updates and protect the infrastructure against cyberattacks.
The economic benefit will depend on whether these capabilities produce lower long-term costs, stronger operational control and sustained service reliability.
What NPS Could Deliver for Nigerian Businesses
The National Payment Stack supports account-to-account instant transfers, QR merchant payments, phone-number-based payment addressing and bulk payments.
Each capability addresses a different commercial need.
Instant transfers can help individuals and businesses move money between participating accounts without relying on slower payment processes. For small businesses, dependable transfers can improve cash-flow management and reduce delays in confirming payments.
QR payments could make digital transactions more accessible to merchants that cannot justify the cost of traditional point-of-sale equipment. Customers could scan a payment code to initiate transactions through supported applications.
This could benefit market traders, neighbourhood retailers, transport operators and small service providers. Wider adoption would still require affordable access, reliable connectivity and simple merchant onboarding.
Phone-number-based addressing could simplify payment initiation by reducing the need to enter lengthy account details. Its effectiveness would depend on accurate directory management, privacy safeguards and measures to prevent mistaken transfers.
Bulk payments could improve the efficiency of salary payments, supplier settlements, pensions and government disbursements. Organisations could process large numbers of payments through a common infrastructure rather than managing each transaction separately.
These capabilities could reduce administrative costs and improve the speed at which money circulates through the economy.
For small businesses operating with limited working capital, faster payment confirmation can support purchasing decisions and improve their ability to meet immediate obligations.
The platform could also create opportunities for fintech companies to develop services that build on the underlying payment infrastructure.
Financial Inclusion and Nigeria’s Economic Growth
The expansion of digital payments provides an important context for assessing NPS’s potential.
The World Bank’s Global Findex Database 2025 examines financial account ownership, digital payments and access to financial services using data collected in 2024. Its Nigeria indicators show continuing differences in digital payment usage across income groups and between men and women.
These differences demonstrate why payment infrastructure development must extend beyond the banking system.
A platform can process transactions efficiently without necessarily reaching people who lack bank accounts, affordable smartphones, reliable internet access or confidence in digital financial services.
NPS could contribute to broader financial inclusion by making it easier for participating financial institutions and fintech companies to develop accessible payment products.
Small businesses could benefit from lower barriers to accepting digital payments. Individuals could gain more convenient ways to send and receive money. Financial service providers could develop products that use payment histories to improve customer service and assess certain financial risks.
However, access must remain a central policy objective. Providers need to consider transaction costs, rural connectivity, digital literacy and the needs of customers who rely on basic mobile devices.
Nigeria’s economic gains will depend on whether these services reach underserved communities rather than concentrating their benefits among existing digital banking customers.
The Security Challenge Behind Faster Payments
The growth of digital transactions also increases the importance of fraud prevention and operational resilience.
Instant payments offer convenience, but rapid processing can leave customers with limited opportunities to recover money sent to fraudulent accounts. Criminals can exploit social engineering, compromised credentials and weaknesses in customer verification.
NPS therefore needs effective monitoring, strong authentication, secure system access and clear procedures for handling disputed transactions.
NIBSS and participating institutions must also coordinate their responses to suspicious activity. Fraud prevention cannot depend on the payment switch alone because risks can originate from customer devices, compromised bank accounts and weaknesses in individual institutions.
Operational resilience is equally important. An outage affecting a widely used national payment platform could disrupt commerce across multiple sectors.
NIBSS must maintain effective disaster recovery arrangements, conduct regular security assessments and ensure that the infrastructure can handle periods of unusually high demand.
Financial institutions also need to complete integration work and implement the relevant messaging and processing requirements correctly.
The success of NPS will depend on this broader ecosystem, not simply on the quality of its underlying software.
Can Nigeria Turn Payment Infrastructure into an Economic Advantage?
The partnership also carries implications for Nigeria’s technology industry.
Transactility founder and chief technology officer Alejandro Revilla described the deployment as an important development for the company and the wider payments community.
“We are proud that NIBSS selected technologies from the jPOS ecosystem for the National Payment Stack,” he said. “NPS shows how open technology and local engineering can be used to build national payment infrastructure at scale.”
The emphasis on local engineering is particularly relevant. Building domestic expertise around critical financial systems could strengthen Nigeria’s capacity to maintain and improve its own technology infrastructure.
It could also create opportunities for software engineers, cybersecurity specialists, payment consultants and fintech developers.
However, the partnership alone does not establish how many jobs it will create or how much money Nigeria could save. Those outcomes require measurable evidence from implementation and subsequent operations.
There is also a potential regional opportunity. A dependable national payment platform could support future services for cross-border commerce, provided that participating countries establish compatible systems, regulatory arrangements and settlement mechanisms.
For Nigerian businesses trading across Africa, more efficient payment connections could reduce some of the administrative difficulties associated with regional transactions.
Such benefits will depend on interoperability and practical implementation rather than technical capability alone.
NPS Must Prove Its Economic Value
The NIBSS-Transactility partnership gives Nigeria a technology platform designed to support the next stage of digital payments.
Its combination of ISO 20022 messaging, jPOS-based switching technology and open-source flexibility could improve the country’s capacity to develop payment services around domestic market requirements.
The economic opportunity lies in making transactions more dependable, reducing administrative friction and enabling businesses to build new services on shared infrastructure.
Yet technological capability is only the starting point. NIBSS must demonstrate sustained reliability, effective fraud controls, affordable access and successful integration across participating financial institutions.
Nigeria must also measure whether the platform reduces payment failures, lowers operating costs and expands access to underserved customers.
If these objectives are achieved, the National Payment Stack could become more than an upgrade to the country’s financial technology infrastructure. It could provide a stronger foundation for digital commerce, business productivity and financial inclusion.
The real measure of success will be whether Nigerian households and businesses experience a payment system that is safer, more accessible and more efficient.
