Nigeria's payment juggernaut: What is the role of NIBSS?

On November 19, Kuda Bank sent a notification to customers. "Transfers between banks are currently not being completed", the neobank said, informing customers that a transaction partner was down. On the same day, Rise, a wealth management fintech, sent a similar but more technical notification to customers: "Your successful transactions may not be completed due to NIP technical issues we're experiencing."

What transaction partner was Kuda referring to? And what is NIP? Some folks on social media asked.

The contemporary Nigerian payments system is a layer of institutions and processes that manage the risks of sending money within the country. It is a complex web of relationship, licences and regulation that help to keep things running smoothly. Here are some of the industry players. Banks issue debit cards powered by payment networks such as Verve, Visa and Mastercard. Mobile money companies such as OPay and TeamApt have thousands of offline