Collaboration Key to the Future of Payment Service Banks in Nigeria – 9PSB CEO

Nigeria’s payment service bank, 9PSB, has emphasized that the growth of Nigeria’s payment ecosystems and increased collaboration among stakeholders are crucial for the future of payment systems in the country. This assertion was made by Nasiru Isyaku, Executive Director of Finance and Banking Operations, who represented the Managing Director and CEO, Branka Mracajac, at the Nigeria Fintech Forum held at The Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

In his keynote address, “Resilient, Robust, Reliable: Building the Future of Payment Service Bank in Nigeria,” Nasiru Isyaku emphasized that the future of payment service banks in Nigeria aims to enhance the nation’s payment systems, providing users with more affordable, accessible, and convenient digital payment options.

In his words, “As a bank that operates with the mandate to close financial exclusion gap, our core responsibility is to provide Nigerians with solutions through practical systems that put smiles on their faces, such as onboarding and recording their payment behaviours so that alternative data can be used to build their wealth assessment models.”

’The future of payment service banks lies through an effective partnership among players and regulators to create new payment systems from scratch, which will be replicated on the world stage. Real-time payments will become the usual with transactions and payments within and outside the sphere of the country, consumers and businesses will quickly adapt to cashless transactions. Secondly, the usage of mobile wallets, digital currencies, and open banking systems are predicted to prevail in the industry. Interestingly, Payment Service Banks ride on existing infrastructure for citizens who are already onboarded through NIN and BVN.’’ Isyaku added.

"Although, Payment Service Banks by virtue of existing regulation, are limited by the scope of services compared to the traditional deposit money banks, including non-participation of foreign exchange transactions with customers, the extension of credit facilities and non-acceptance of time deposits we hope that as the PSBs continues to grow, the Central Bank of Nigeria can approve of them to perform further services to meet their customers’ needs,’’ he remarked.