Two decades ago, Nigeria was a country where cash was king. More than 60% of adults had no access to a bank account, and moving money often meant physical trips, long queues and considerable risk.
Today, that picture has changed dramatically, and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is betting that the next chapter of the country’s financial transformation will be even more far-reaching.
On June 1, 2026, the CBN formally unveiled the Payments System Vision 2028 (PSV 2028), a new blueprint designed to guide Nigeria’s payments ecosystem over the next three years.
The launch, held at the inaugural meeting of the PSV 2028 Project Committee in Lagos, brought together regulators, bankers, fintech operators, and consumer groups, all invited to help shape what the CBN described as a “national assignment.”
The story of how Nigeria got here is itself instructive. Before 2007, the country’s economy ran almost entirely on cash. High transaction costs, thin banking infrastructure, security concerns, and low digital literacy kept millions locked out of formal finance.
The CBN’s response, the Payments System Vision 2020, launched that year, followed by the Cashless Policy in 2012, set the country on a path toward electronic payments. A successor framework, PSV 2025, built on that foundation, pushing further gains in adoption, safety and innovation.
Now, as the PSV 2025 nears its expiry, PSV 2028 arrives to consolidate what has been achieved while confronting what remains unfinished business.
Speaking at the launch, the Director of Payments System Policy Department, Musa Jimoh, framed the moment as both a reckoning and an opportunity.
Reflecting on the journey from the early reforms of 2006 through PSV 2020 and PSV 2025, he said the new vision would build on milestones to deepen financial inclusion, improve infrastructure interoperability, and drive innovation across the financial services sector.
Nigeria’s payment system has advanced significantly, he noted, but the pace of technological change shows no sign of slowing, and PSV 2028 offers a chance to build a framework that is secure, efficient, and globally competitive.
At the heart of the new vision are six guiding principles: interoperability, security, inclusion, innovation, trust, and collaboration. Officials describe these as a DNA of every initiative to come under the framework, whether it involves banks in Lagos, fintech startups, or market traders in a rural community trying to access a digital wallet for the first time.
The numbers behind the ambition are striking: the CBN wants formal financial inclusion to rise to 95% by 2028, with the share of adult digital payments climbing from 52 to 80%. It wants full interoperability across all licensed payment service providers, a national security operations centre to guard against cyber threats, and cross-border payment rails that work seamlessly through both cards and account-to-account transfers. There is also a nod to the future of money itself, with plans for CBN observer nodes on blockchain networks running approved stablecoins, and continued exploration of a digital Naira.
Much of this builds on real, if uneven, progress made under PSV 2025. Nigeria’s agent banking network has grown to nearly two million agents spread across local government areas nationwide, though liquidity shortages and uneven service quality remain persistent complaints. The Bank Verification Number (BVN) system has become the backbone of digital identity verification, linking 66 million unique IDs to account and wallet. The Nigeria Data Protection Act of 2023 introduced new safeguards for consumer data, and service level agreements now require ATM chargeback disputes to be resolved within 24 hours.
Yet, the CBN itself acknowledges that gaps remain. A widening trust deficit, uneven financial literacy, and persistent exposure to fraud continue to limit how deep and lasting the country’s inclusion gains truly are. It is precisely these fault lines that PSV 2028 emphasis on consumer protection and financial literacy is meant to address.
To carry the framework forward, five thematic groups have been established, covering infrastructure and interoperability, digital financial inclusion and consumer protection, innovation and digital identity, cross-border payments and CBDC integration, and regulation and cybersecurity. A sixth group focused on strategic communication and stakeholder engagement has also been proposed, underscoring how central public buy-in is to the project’s success.
The collaborative approach appears to be resonating with industry veterans, Ajao Niyi, former chief executive of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), applauded the CBN for setting a new standard of stakeholder engagement and urged all parties to rally behind the initiative.
Participants at the Lagos launch echoed similar sentiments, welcoming what they described as an inclusive process that would produce a forward-looking document capable of strengthening Nigeria’s standing in both the African and global payment landscape.
Whether PSV 2028 can deliver on its ambitious targets, from near total ISO 20022 migration to biometric and invisible payment options for the underbanked, will only become clear over the next three years. But for now, the CBN has set out its markets: a payments system that is just digital, but genuinely inclusive, secure, and ready to compete on a global stage.
