Reported by: Ime Richard Aondofa | Edited by: Gabriel Osa
Abuja, Nigeria — The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued a landmark directive requiring all financial institutions, acquirers, payment processors and Point-of-Sale (PoS) service providers to implement mandatory dual connectivity for PoS terminals nationwide, with a strict one-month deadline for compliance. The move, announced in a circular dated 11 December 2025, aims to bolster the resilience and reliability of Nigeria’s electronic payments infrastructure and reduce recurring transaction failures that have frustrated merchants and consumers alike.
Signed by Rakiya Yusuf, Director of the Payments System Supervision Department of the CBN, the directive updates a previous policy introduced in September 2024 and addresses persistent outages linked to reliance on a single transaction channel. Under the new rule, every PoS terminal must be configured to maintain active connections with both of Nigeria’s licensed payment aggregators — the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) and Unified Payment Services Limited (UPSL) — ensuring automatic failover in the event that one network experiences technical difficulties.
According to the circular, the one-month compliance window begins from the date of issue, giving operators until mid-January 2026 to complete integration work, conduct rigorous testing, and demonstrate functionality under the dual-connectivity framework. This requirement extends to all participants in the PoS ecosystem, including banks and non-bank financial institutions, payment aggregators, processors and terminal service providers, as well as any third parties responsible for maintaining PoS networks.
The CBN has stated that the dual-connectivity mandate is intended to eliminate the widespread PoS downtime that has disrupted business activities across Nigeria in recent years, particularly in retail markets and small-scale commerce where reliable electronic payments are essential. By reducing dependence on a single aggregator, the regulator expects a more stable payment environment that enhances consumer confidence and supports economic activity, especially for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) that rely heavily on card and electronic transactions.
As part of the implementation process, the central bank has also outlined reporting and testing obligations for network operators and aggregators. Licensed entities such as NIBSS and UPSL are required to collaborate with regulated institutions to carry out periodic redundancy and failover tests to confirm that systems can seamlessly switch between channels without service interruption. In the event of any outage or network degradation, the circular mandates that such incidents be reported promptly, with detailed reports submitted to the CBN within 24 hours outlining causes, impacts and corrective measures taken.
Payment industry analysts have welcomed the directive as a critical step toward addressing chronic PoS failures that have undermined digital payment adoption in Nigeria. Merchants and consumers have frequently complained about transaction declines, errors and processing delays that occur when systems routed through a single network go offline. By enforcing dual connectivity, the CBN seeks to mitigate these vulnerabilities and strengthen the robustness of the payments ecosystem.
The move also builds on earlier regulatory actions by the CBN aimed at sanitising the PoS landscape and enhancing oversight. In August 2025, the apex bank mandated geo-tagging of all PoS terminals to improve traceability and security, a step designed to curb fraud and enable real-time monitoring of point-of-sale activity across the country.
In its statement accompanying the new directive, the CBN emphasised that the dual-connectivity rule is a necessary evolution of its regulatory framework to ensure that electronic payments are reliable, efficient and resilient to disruptions. The central bank also stressed that full compliance is mandatory and that regulated entities should prioritise the required technical upgrades to avoid possible sanctions or restrictions on operations.
The nationwide rollout of the dual connectivity mandate comes at a time when digital payments continue to expand rapidly in Nigeria, with PoS terminals remaining a central pillar of financial inclusion and commerce. By strengthening the backbone of electronic transaction systems, the CBN hopes to sustain growth in digital finance, support economic participation across demographics, and reduce the economic losses associated with payment failures.
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