By Bassey Udo
The newly unveiled Nigerian payments strategy will fundamentally transform the country’s business ecosystem, remove barriers to commerce, and position Nigeria as a dominant hub for trade, investment, and financial services across Africa and the world, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, has said.
The CBN governor who made the declaration in Abuja on Monday at the official launch of the Payments System Vision 2028 (PSV 2028), describing it not only as an ambitious strategy, but one that is more than a policy framework.
He said the new payment strategy would serve as “a vision for how Nigerians will transact, trade, save, invest, and participate in an increasingly digital economy.”
“For Nigeria, efficient payment systems reduce the cost of doing business, improve productivity, strengthen transparency, support trade, and broaden participation in economic activity,” Cardoso told a gathering of financial industry leaders, regulators, fintech executives, and development partners.
“In a modern economy, payment infrastructure is not simply a financial utility — it is a strategic national asset”, he added.
Acknowledging the strategic role of a reliable payment system in transacting business, Mr Cardoso said in a rapidly evolving global landscape where “the speed, security, and reach of payments increasingly define the competitiveness of nations,” the new strategy would provide a comprehensive roadmap anchored on making the country’s payments ecosystem secure, inclusive, resilient, and globally competitive.
Two Decades Milestone
Cardoso traced the roots of the new vision to over two decades of consistent evolution in Nigeria’s payments sector, noting that the country had already established itself as one of the most dynamic and innovative payments ecosystems in the world, frequently setting the pace on the African continent.
The country’s progress, which he said has in several respects compared favourably with leading global markets, impacted on economic activity, financial inclusion, and system resilience across the entire Nigerian economy.
The PSV 2028, he explained, builds on the foundation of the progress, highlighting the CBN’s ambition to build a payments ecosystem that was secure, inclusive, resilient, and globally competitive.
The apex Bank’s governor maintained that the new vision was not an isolated initiative, but a critical component of the CBN’s broader reform agenda pursued since 2023.
The strategy, he pointed out, would support efforts by the CBN to stabilise the economy, facilitate trade and remittance flows, deepen investor confidence, and contribute to improvements in Nigeria’s external and Balance of Payments position over time.
Real Impact for Nigerians
Beyond the macro-economic benefit of the new payments system, Cardoso said the PSV 2028 would impact the way business is done by ordinary Nigerians at the grassroots, from market traders to small business owners scattered across the country’s diverse regions.
“For the entrepreneur in Aba, the trader in Zaria, the fashion designer in Ilesha, or the small business owner in Kano, efficient and interoperable payment systems can mean access to new markets, faster settlement of transactions, and greater participation in regional and global commerce,” he said.
Besides, the CBN governor noted that the new payments infrastructure would become a powerful tool for job creation, income growth, and poverty reduction, making the vision not merely about technology or transactions, but fundamentally about opportunity for growth of the country’s gross domestic product.
Five Strategic Pillars of growth
The Deputy Governor for Economic Policy at the CBN, Dr. Muhammad Sani Abdullahi, who delivered a comprehensive presentation on the technical architecture of the vision, outlined the five mutually reinforcing priorities on which PSV 2028 was anchored.
The first pillar, Abdullahi said, was the development of modern, interoperable, and resilient payment infrastructure capable of supporting a digital economy at scale.
The second, he said, was financial inclusion, consumer protection, and financial literacy, to ensure that individuals, households, and businesses can participate confidently in the country’s formal financial system.
He said the third vision embraces innovation and emerging technologies, including open banking, digital assets, and artificial intelligence, to improve efficiency and expand economic access.
In addition, he said the fourth pillar aims at positioning Nigeria as a leading hub for cross-border payments and regional trade by leveraging initiatives such as the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Finally, the deputy governor identified the fifth priority as regulation, risk management, cybersecurity, and consumer confidence, recognising that innovation and growth must be underpinned by trust.
Dr. Abdullahi described these five priority pillars as deeply interconnected and mutually reinforcing, adding that: “Infrastructure enables inclusion; inclusion drives adoption; adoption fuels innovation; and innovation expands opportunities for trade, investment, and economic growth.”
Facilitating AfCFTA and Regional Integration
Both the governor and his deputy placed significant emphasis on Nigeria’s opportunity to leverage PSV 2028 within the context of the AfCFTA, which promises to unlock one of the world’s largest single markets in Africa.
By reducing payment frictions and settlement costs, Dr. Abdullahi said the new vision would facilitate commerce, enhance export competitiveness, and strengthen regional integration, directly accelerating Nigeria’s participation in the continent’s emerging trade architecture.
Cardoso reinforced this point, saying the PSV 2028 “seeks to ensure that every Nigerian can participate meaningfully in the digital economy, while positioning Nigeria to take advantage of opportunities arising from the AfCFTA, expanding digital commerce, and increasingly interconnected markets.”
Measuring Success by Execution, Not Strategy
Both Cardoso and Abdullahi were clear that the quality of the PSV 2028 document alone would not determine its success.
For Cardoso, the real test of the success of the PSV 2028 would not be measured by its quality, but by its execution or in its implementation, particularly the ability of stakeholders to collaborate and expand the opportunity, strengthen trust, lower barriers to participation, and build a payments ecosystem that serves every Nigerian and supports the ambitions of the country’s economy.
Dr. Abdullahi warned that realising the vision’s full potential would require “strong collaboration among regulators, financial institutions, fintechs, technology providers, businesses, and consumers,” adding that success would ultimately be measured “not by the speed of transactions alone, but by its contribution to investment, productivity, job creation, and long-term prosperity.”
They called on all stakeholders — government agencies, financial institutions, fintech companies, technology providers, development partners, academia, and payment service users — to see the vision’s implementation as a shared responsibility.
“The future we seek is within reach, and the responsibility to build it rests with all of us,” Dr. Abdullahi declared.
A New Chapter
By unveiling the PSV 2028, Mr Cardoso expressed confidence that Nigeria possesses the scale, talent, entrepreneurial capacity, and institutional foundations to translate the vision’s ambitions into reality to grow its economy.
“The countries that will thrive in this new era will be those that invest in trusted, resilient, and forward-looking financial infrastructure. Nigeria has already demonstrated what is possible,” he said.
“PSV 2028 is our commitment to building on that foundation and ensuring that our payments ecosystem continues to support growth, innovation, inclusion, and prosperity for generations to come,” he added.
