The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed all banks, acquirers, processors, and payment service providers to implement dual connectivity infrastructure for all Point of Sale (PoS) terminals within one month. The new mandate, announced in a circular dated December 11, 2025, marks an intensified push to stabilise Nigeria’s electronic payment ecosystem and reduce the persistent network failures that have plagued PoS transactions nationwide.
The circular, signed by the Director of the Payments System Supervision Department, Rakiya Yusuf, upgrades an earlier policy introduced in September 2024. According to the apex bank, the decision was informed by prolonged system bottlenecks caused by heavy dependence on a single processing channel—a vulnerability that frequently triggers nationwide PoS outages and failed transactions.
Under the revised directive, all payment acquirers, processors, and Payment Terminal Service Providers (PTSPs) are now required to maintain simultaneous connectivity with both the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) and Unified Payment Services Limited (UPSL). The CBN stated that this dual connectivity standard is now compulsory across the industry and is designed to reduce reliance on any one aggregator, thereby improving transaction resilience and reducing downtime.
Automatic Failover Becomes Industry Standard
As part of its broader effort to strengthen payment continuity, the central bank ordered that all PoS routing systems must be configured to automatically switch from one aggregator to the other whenever service disruptions arise. This automatic failover mechanism—previously optional—is now a mandatory requirement for all payment players.
The CBN emphasised that this move is expected to significantly increase transaction completion rates, particularly during network interruptions that often cripple retail payments across major commercial hubs and small communities alike.
To ensure the effectiveness of this new architecture, the circular also imposes strict requirements for periodic redundancy and failover testing. NIBSS and UPSL must work closely with regulated institutions to validate technical readiness and assess the robustness of their systems. The apex bank stated that these tests will now be formally integrated into its supervisory framework for monitoring Nigeria’s payment infrastructure.
Tighter Incident Reporting Rules Introduced
Alongside infrastructure requirements, the CBN has strengthened reporting obligations for payment aggregators. Under the new rules, both NIBSS and UPSL must notify banks immediately when downtime occurs, ensuring that institutions respond swiftly to customer complaints.
In addition, they are required to submit a detailed incident report to the Payments System Supervision Department within 24 hours. This report must highlight the root cause of the disruption, the extent of impact on payment channels, and the corrective actions taken to restore stability. The CBN said these provisions are necessary to enhance transparency and accountability in the payments sector.
With a one-month implementation timeline, all banks, acquirers and PTSPs must fully integrate, test, and deploy the dual connectivity setup before mid-January 2026. The regulator warned that all institutions are expected to meet the deadline as part of the ongoing efforts to strengthen digital payment reliability.
Background: Geo-Tagging, ISO Standards, and Stricter PoS Regulations
The dual connectivity directive follows a series of regulatory reforms introduced by the CBN over the past year aimed at sanitising and fortifying the PoS and agent-banking ecosystem. On August 25, 2025, the central bank issued a landmark circular mandating that all existing PoS terminals be geo-tagged within 60 days, while newly deployed devices must be geo-tagged before activation. This measure was designed to curb fraud, track agent locations more accurately, and enforce compliance with operating-radius rules.
That earlier directive also required full migration to ISO 20022 payment messaging standards and mandated geolocation and geofencing capabilities for all PoS terminals, restricting their operation to within approximately 10 metres of their registered addresses. Devices that failed compliance checks conducted from October 20, 2025 faced deactivation.
Additionally, the CBN enforced tighter rules on agent banking—including a minimum penalty of N5 million for breaches, plus N300,000 for each additional day of non-compliance. The regulator later extended the enforcement deadline for location and exclusivity rules to April 1, 2026 to allow operators more time to comply.
Looking Ahead
The latest directive reflects the CBN’s broader mission to build a resilient, reliable, and technologically sound digital payments environment. With transaction volumes growing rapidly, the apex bank is pushing aggressive reforms to ensure that Nigeria’s payment rails are robust enough to support its expanding digital economy.
Emmanuel Bassey is a Financial Expert that has worked in the Banking and Finance Industry for over 15+ years across different banks in Nigeria
