First Bank, Fidelity Bank Lead in NPS’ 26 Million Transactions

The newly launched National Payment Stack (NPS) platform, developed by Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) Plc, has recorded 26.55 million transactions valued at ₦1.4 trillion across 48 participating institutions in its initial rollout phase.

The NPS is a sovereign, ISO 20022-compliant digital infrastructure designed to succeed the legacy NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) system and modernise Nigeria’s financial ecosystem. The platform unifies payments, identity, and data onto a single intelligent rail, enabling multi-currency transactions, advanced payment intelligence, and robust cross-border capabilities.

Early operational data highlights strong commercial adoption: First Bank of Nigeria leads the industry in total transaction volume, while Fidelity Bank tops overall transaction value. Other key early adopters driving network scale include Guaranty Trust Bank, Sterling Bank, Access Bank, and Moniepoint.

The NPS introduces several operational and structural advances for Nigeria’s financial sector:

• ISO 20022 Data Architecture: Enables structured, metadata-rich transactions that automate corporate reconciliation, streamline merchant collections, and power request-to-pay invoicing.
• Unified Payment Rails: Consolidates single transfers and high-volume corporate disbursements on one platform, supporting direct debits, asynchronous processing, and deferred settlement options.
• Enhanced Security & Compliance: Integrates automated sanction screening, account validation, end-to-end encryption, and in-flight risk scoring to detect fraud before execution.
• Treasury Precision: Provides real-time net position visibility and continuous settlement accounting for optimised liquidity management among participating institutions.

Premier Oiwoh, Managing Director and CEO of NIBSS, described the National Payment Stack as an economic catalyst, stating, “By delivering an ISO 20022-compliant, multi-currency rail, we are laying the groundwork for unprecedented interoperability, heightened security, and seamless regional trade.”

Oiwoh also emphasised the need for full participant alignment across technical and operational fronts to guarantee optimal transaction experiences for end-users. He called on all financial services institutions to immediately activate all related messaging and fund transfer rails, pledging NIBSS’s ongoing technical support and integration assistance to help institutions comply with KYC validation standards and optimise API usage.

“This proactive engagement will prevent platform congestion, enforce proper usage standards, and safeguard system performance as we work together with all institutions to complete integration,” Oiwoh added. “Our shared objective is to achieve a seamless, full industry cut-over to the National Payment Stack as we prepare to decommission our 15-year-old legacy NIP rail.”

Reinforcing the call to action, Rakiya Opemi Yusuf, Director of the Payments System Supervision Department at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), urged all financial institutions to accelerate their NPS integration during a recent working visit to NIBSS headquarters. Her statement reaffirmed the CBN’s mandatory and full regulatory support for the ISO 20022 standard in Nigeria’s payment system.