With over 400 million Africans still excluded from basic financial services, experts are calling for homegrown solutions to bridge the gap and ensure the continent’s digital transformation leaves no one behind.
Speaking at a peer learning visit in Lagos hosted by the AfricaNenda Foundation in partnership with the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), stakeholders from more than 20 African countries emphasised the urgency of building African-owned, African-designed instant payment systems tailored to local realities.
Dr. Robert Ochola, CEO of AfricaNenda Foundation, stressed that while global technologies have their place, they cannot replace the need for local innovation. “Africa can build its own systems and make them world-class,” he said, urging solutions designed for informal traders, rural communities, and people without smartphones.
Nigeria’s NIBSS, which already processes close to a billion transactions monthly, presented its latest innovation—the National Payment Stack (NPS). The platform offers real-time payments, ISO 20022-compliant messaging, integrated KYC validation, fraud detection tools, and cross-border capability.
Mr. Premier Oiwoh, Managing Director/CEO of NIBSS, described the NPS as more than a platform, calling it a “foundational investment in Nigeria’s financial future” that can support a trillion-dollar digital economy. He credited close collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria as a key driver of trust and efficiency.
A critical part of the new payment system is its integration with Nigeria’s identity frameworks, including the National Identity Number (NIN), Bank Verification Number (BVN), and Tax Identification Number (TIN). This, experts said, will strengthen user verification, build trust, and expand access to underserved groups.
Delegates from countries including Eswatini, Somalia, Togo, Guinea, Liberia, Madagascar, and South Sudan joined the Lagos forum, where discussions centred on scaling inclusive instant payment systems (IIPS) across borders.
Mr. Musa Jimoh, Director of Payment System Policy at the Central Bank of Nigeria, proposed creating an Africa Regulators Forum on Instant Payment Systems to harmonise standards and accelerate collaboration.
Both NIBSS and AfricaNenda urged African countries to move away from dependency on imported systems and instead invest in African-led, inclusive, and reliable digital infrastructure.
“Let us not confuse digitization with inclusion. Let us not accept 99.9% when 100% is what our people deserve,” Oiwoh declared, reinforcing the vision for digital systems built from Africa, for Africa.