CBN Payments System Vision 2028: Impact on Nigeria’s digital economy

Nigeria has launched multiple payment roadmaps over the past decade, yet cash still accounts for more than half of daily transactions. PSV 2028 is either the turning point or another missed target.

Key takeaways

Nigeria processed over ₦1.07 quadrillion (about $702 billion) in electronic transactions in 2024, nearly an 80% surge from ₦600 trillion in 2023. The volume of transactions processed was 11.2 billion in 2024, a 15.5% year‑on‑year increase.
Roughly 55% of payments in Nigeria are still cash-based, despite fintech growth.
About 26% of Nigerian adults remain unbanked, according to the Access to Finance (A2F) survey report.
CBN’s PSV 2028 targets 95% financial inclusion, requiring onboarding nearly 30 million people in under four years.
Open banking and cybersecurity are now core infrastructure priorities under PSV 2028.

The CBN Nigeria Payments System Vision 2028 (PSV 2028) came at a moment when the country’s financial ecosystem felt both advanced and incomplete. On one hand, Nigeria processes trillions of naira in digital transactions annually, supported by a growing fintech ecosystem and improving Nigerian payment infrastructure. On the other hand, tens of millions of adults remain excluded from formal financial services, and cash still dominates everyday transactions.

With PSV 2028, the Central Bank of Nigeria is attempting to close long-standing gaps between infrastructure, access, and adoption. This includes advancing initiatives such as the Open Banking Nigeria CBN frameworks, strengthening cybersecurity, and accelerating inclusion targets that previous policies failed to meet.

This article breaks down what PSV 2028 aims to achieve and what it means for consumers, businesses, and fintechs.

Summary of PSV 2028

Pillar	Target	What It Means
Financial inclusion	95% inclusion rate	Bring millions of unbanked Nigerians into the formal financial system
Digital payments growth	Increased share of digital transactions	Reduce reliance on cash across retail and informal sectors
Open banking	Full framework implementation	Enable secure data sharing between financial institutions
Cybersecurity	Strengthened national payment security	Reduce fraud and build trust in digital systems
Regulatory efficiency	Faster licensing and compliance processes	Improve fintech participation and innovation

What is the CBN Nigeria Payments System Vision 2028?

The PSV 2028 is the country’s national roadmap for transforming how money moves across the economy between 2024 and 2028. Developed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, it builds on the foundation of PSV 2025 but expands far beyond basic payment adoption.

What changed is the scope.

While PSV 2025 focused largely on increasing digital payment usage, PSV 2028 shifts toward a more holistic upgrade of the financial system, covering data sharing, interoperability, and system-wide security. In other words, it’s no longer just about getting people to use digital payments, but about building the infrastructure that makes those payments seamless, connected, and secure.

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The new framework introduces critical layers that were previously underdeveloped, including open banking, cross-border payment systems, and a clearer strategy around Nigeria’s central bank digital currency (the eNaira).

Importantly, this vision cuts across all segments of the ecosystem:

Banks.
Fintech companies.
Payment service providers.

Key pillars and targets of PSV 2028

If you strip away the policy language, PSV 2028 is structured around five key pillars:

Financial inclusion.
Open banking.
Cross-border payments.
Cybersecurity.
Payment infrastructure.

Taken together, it represents a shift from isolated improvements to a fully integrated payments ecosystem strategy.

1. Financial inclusion

Nigeria’s financial inclusion rate is roughly 74%, according to A2F data. The CBN aims to push that to 95%.

The Central Bank of Nigeria plans to get there through:

Tiered KYC systems, allowing low-documentation onboarding.
Agent banking expansion, especially in underserved areas.
Mobile-first onboarding, reducing reliance on physical branches.

This lowers the barrier to entry in theory, but means onboarding tens of millions of new users, many of whom are outside formal identity and banking systems.

2. Open banking

One of the biggest structural shifts in PSV 2028 is the move toward open banking, formalized through draft guidelines released in 2023 by the CBN.

This introduces mandatory API-based data sharing between financial institutions, unlocking:

Better credit scoring for underserved users.
Financial aggregation apps that unify multiple accounts.
More personalized fintech products.

If it works as intended, data (in addition to money) becomes the backbone of Nigeria’s financial system.

3. Cross-border payments

Nigeria received about $23 billion in remittance inflows in 2025, making it one of Africa’s largest recipients. PSV 2028 aims to make these flows faster, cheaper, and more integrated, especially within Africa.

The goal is seamless cross-border payment interoperability, aligned with broader continental efforts under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Execution will likely rely on expanding infrastructure from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), alongside bilateral payment agreements with other African countries.

If successful, this could significantly reduce friction in regional trade and remittances.

4. Cybersecurity

Nigeria is moving from a compliance-based approach to an enforced security architecture, with the CBN pushing toward zero-trust frameworks.

This includes:

Mandatory incident reporting.
Stronger system monitoring requirements.
Continuous verification of users and systems.

For fintechs, this raises the bar and the cost of compliance. But it also addresses the growing issue of trust. As digital transactions scale, so does fraud risk.

5. Payment infrastructure

Nigeria’s payment system already processes over 9 billion transactions annually. PSV 2028 targets near-perfect system reliability (99.9% uptime).

As transaction volumes grow, even small system failures can cascade into large-scale disruptions, affecting businesses, consumers, and financial institutions simultaneously.

What PSV 2028 means for consumers, businesses, and fintechs

Here’s how PSV 2028 is likely to play out across the ecosystem.

For consumers

Globally, remittance costs average 6.4%. In Nigeria, they can be higher. PSV 2028 aims to push them down while improving access.

For you as a consumer, that translates into:

Lower transfer costs, especially for cross-border payments.
Faster settlement times, with fewer delays between sending and receiving money.
More personalized financial products, driven by open banking data.

If executed well, digital finance becomes more accessible and tailored to how people use money.

For businesses

With a target of 99.9% system uptime, PSV 2028 is effectively promising a more stable payment backbone.

For businesses, that means:

More reliable transactions, reducing failed payments and downtime.
Lower infrastructure friction, especially for SMEs adopting digital tools.
Easier expansion into underserved areas, where agent banking and mobile payments are expected to grow.

For fintechs

For fintechs, compliance is no longer optional. The CBN is raising the bar across multiple fronts:

API readiness for open banking integration.
Stronger KYC systems for onboarding and verification.
Advanced cybersecurity compliance, including zero-trust frameworks.

The upside is that fintechs that align early stand to gain:

Faster licensing approvals.
Access to regulatory sandboxes.
Stronger positioning for partnerships with banks and global players.

Where the gaps are in PSV 2028

Policy isn’t the problem. Execution is. And PSV 2028 already has a few pressure points worth watching.

The credibility problem

The Central Bank of Nigeria’s previous roadmap, PSV 2025, missed its financial inclusion target by 21 percentage points.

That gap tells me that targets don’t automatically translate into outcomes, especially when structural issues like identity systems, income levels, and trust aren’t fully addressed.

I’m hopeful about PSV 2028, even as it raises the bar even higher, but credibility is still a real concern.

eNaira adoption challenge

Nigeria’s central bank digital currency, the eNaira, has struggled with adoption, with usage still estimated at below 1% of the population.

For PSV 2028 to succeed, the Central Bank of Nigeria will likely need a relaunch strategy, one that focuses on usability, incentives, and possibly offline functionality for underserved areas.

Without that, the eNaira risks remaining a policy experiment rather than a meaningful payment tool.

Open banking delays

Open banking is central to PSV 2028, but timelines have already shifted.

Draft frameworks have taken longer than expected to move into full implementation, raising the risk that key milestones could slip beyond 2026.

If that happens, it delays everything built on top of it, including credit innovation, data-driven lending, and financial aggregation platforms.

Cross-border dependencies

Cross-border payments sound promising, but they depend on more than just Nigeria.

They require:

Multi-country regulatory alignment.
Shared infrastructure standards.
Bilateral and regional agreements.

That means parts of PSV 2028 are not fully within the CBN’s control. Progress will depend heavily on how quickly other African markets move in sync.

FAQs

What is the CBN Payments System Vision 2028?

It is Nigeria’s national payments roadmap, developed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, designed to transform the country’s financial system between 2024 and 2028.

How is PSV 2028 different from PSV 2025?

PSV 2028 expands beyond payment adoption to include open banking, cross-border payment systems, and cybersecurity frameworks, making it a more comprehensive financial system strategy.

Which fintechs are most affected?

Fintechs operating in payments, lending, and financial data infrastructure will be most impacted, especially those that rely on APIs, customer data, and regulatory licensing.

Is 95% financial inclusion realistic?

Yes, albeit highly ambitious. Based on current trends and past performance, reaching 95% inclusion will require unprecedented execution across banking, fintech, and government systems.

Conclusion

PSV 2028 is easily Nigeria’s most ambitious payments framework yet. But ambition alone won’t deliver results.

Success will depend on consistent enforcement, reliable infrastructure execution, and real cooperation across the financial ecosystem.

The CBN has set the direction, but whether the system follows through will ultimately determine whether this becomes a turning point or just another roadmap.

Citations

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