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Nigerian payment system improving – CBN

By on December 10, 2015

The Nigerian payment system is efficient and has been encouraging following the introduction of Real Time Gross Settlement system, the Director, Banking and Payments System, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Dipo Fatokun, has said.

The RTGS is a specialist fund transfer system in which transfer of money or securities is done from one bank to another on a ‘real time’ and on ‘gross’ basis.

Settlement in ‘real time’ means payment transaction is not subjected to any waiting period.

Fatokun observed that the RTGS, enabled by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, had enhanced financial transactions’ turnaround time in the country.

According to him, the development has facilitated the smooth and rapid settlement of interbank transfers.

He spoke at a programme organised by the CBN and SWIFT to appraise the efficiency and acceptability of the financial solution introduced into the nation’s financial industry in 2013.

Fatokun said, “The era of moving security and defaulting in payment or making payment or defaulting in security has gone with the new RTGS.”

He said the next phase of the new RTGS was securities, noting that the introduction of the financial solution had raised the confidence level of participants in the nation’s payment industry.

The Head, Swift, sub-Saharan Africa, Mr. Smith Hugo, also observed that in the last five years, Nigeria’s payment platform had improved significantly.

With the deployment of the RTGS, Hugo said Nigeria had aligned itself with international best practices.

He said, “The SWIFT is widely used in the RTGS system, and with Nigeria adopting the SWIFT as well, it’s really come to align itself with international best practices, trainings and standards.

“The payment system in Nigeria for the last five years has evolved tremendously and has really become almost an example to what can be done internationally.”

Hugo, however, said, “I think the challenge is to increase financial inclusion to ensure that the unbanked community has access to financial system. I think that is one area payment system needs some attention.”
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One Comment

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