The
Speaking at the launch, the CBN governor,
"I am indeed most gratified that the
"The Cash-less Policy which commenced in 2012, signposts our common drive to strengthen the national payment system and deepen the usage of electronic platforms in
The national domestic card is expected to rival
The cards should also have the capacity to reduce
The bank, last year, announced it will launch the card scheme this January through the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) in partnership with the Bankers Committee.
On Thursday,
"We have witnessed the proliferation of products, channels and participants with significantly increased foreign direct investments into the Nigerian payments space," he noted.
"The CBN has also over time focused attention on robust development of financial service touch points including the ATMs, POS terminals and agent networks. The success of the Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility has led to growth in the number of agents to about 1.5 million across the Federation with the capacity to accept card payments from Nigerians".
According to him, many Nigerians are still excluded despite the penetration of card payments in
"Given the limited usage of cards by Nigerians and in a bid to deepen penetration, the Bank actively promoted the National domestic card scheme which will be accessible to all Nigerians and also address our local peculiarities.
"This Scheme is therefore an important plug in the gap that has remained with us since the cash-less policy was introduced".
Global trend
Mr Emefiele said the establishment of the card scheme is in line with global trends.
The effort, he said, is not a quest to prevent international service providers from continuing to provide services in
"The CBN is committed to a robust, efficient and safe national payments system and welcomes innovation from both domestic firms and foreign investors. The Nigerian market is vast, and the current participants have done so much in the last twelve years to transform the ecosystem. Yet there is much ground to be covered as millions of Nigerians are yet without payment cards to consummate transactions," he noted.
"We can no longer neglect the vast majority of Nigerians whose daily payments need micropayments. We need to capture them in national statistics to further understand their transaction dynamics and properly target interventions in that sector of the economy.
"Indeed, the National Domestic Card Scheme bodes opportunities for our economy to integrate the informal segment of our economy, reduce shadow banking, bring more Nigerians into the formal financial services with attendant diversification of deposit portfolio which will further strengthen the stability of the banking industry."
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