E-Financial
CBN Lists Benefits of PSV 2020 Initiative

The Payments System Vision 2020 (PSV2020) initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been described as a catalyst in the revolutionised payment system landscape of the country.
Besides, it has been assessed to have facilitated economic activities, by providing safe and efficient mechanisms for making and receiving payments with minimum risks to the central bank, payment service providers and end users, extending the availability and usage to all sectors and geographies, banked and unbanked, and conforming to internationally accepted regulatory, technical and operational standards.
Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, who made the observation at the inauguration of the Payments System Strategy Board, Scheme and Initiative Working Groups, reiterated that the core objective of PSV2020, was to make our payments system “nationally utilised and internationally recognised”.
He added: “It is gratifying to note that our country is not only acknowledged as a major economic force within Africa, but also increasingly becoming an active player in the global economy and to participate actively, our payments system must be successfully benchmarked against the global best practices.”
Emefiele noted that through the implementation of the original PSV2020 initiatives by the CBN, in association with the banking community, Nigeria has witnessed an impressive growth of electronic payments and a shift from the overwhelming dominance of cash as a means of payment.
He listed the implementation of the Nigeria Uniform Bank Account Number; deployed the real time gross settlement systems where transfer of money or securities takes place from one bank to another on a “real time” and on “gross” basis, without waiting period; and the popular cash-less policy.
Others were the deployment of deployment of the Scripless Securities Settlement System; introduction of Cheque Truncation, which reduced clearing cycles for Automated Clearing House payments and cheque from three days (T+2) to next day (T+1); and enthronement of limits on encashment of third party cheques and a maximum cap of N10 million for cheque payments, to encourage the use of electronic payments channels.
There were also the adoption of mobile money as a major channel for delivering financial inclusion; support for the implementation of the Federal Government’s Treasury Single Account; and migration of all payment cards from magnetic stripe technology to Chip-and-PIN, otherwise known as EMV, due to the assessed weaknesses of the former.
According to him, though the system has recorded some significant achievements so far in this journey, a lot still remains to be done and we do not intend to rest on our oars.
However, the new focus, which emerged from a detailed assessment of the Nigerian payments infrastructure, identified eight new industry verticals aimed at advancing the adoption of the electronic payments in Nigeria.
The CBN chief pointed out that in agriculture sector, the focus would be to develop electronic payment methods to support the value chain from inputs to tertiary production and supply, while a cashless model for Smart Cities will be developed.
For the smart cities scheme, the focus will be on both existing cities and “greenfield cities”, to ensure that less cash is used as a means of payment in retail outlets, transportation, and food.
Government’s cash flows would be reformed to ensure adoption of end-to-end electronic channels for all forms of salaries, pensions, suppliers, individual & business taxes payment and collection of revenues by private and public sector organisations.
In hotel and entertainment, there would be need to work with key pilot hotels and other key entertainment venues such as restaurants, cinemas, sports centres to promote the cash-less initiative.
Under the transportation sector, he said the new focus would develop strategies for getting the public to pay for transportation (inter-city and intra-city) electronically, while a pilot implementation would be organised with various transportation companies.
Expressing confidence on the success of in the transport sector, he said that a lot of traction has been gained on this initiative on air transportation, while a lot still remains to be done on land, water and rail transport systems.
Other areas of focus include education, health and bill payments and direct debits, by designing and developing channels with components such as grants, scholarships, consultancy services, Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), tuition and administrative fees, provision of personal and medical information and payments for health and medical services and driving the current initiative for bill payments like insurance, pensions, telecommunications, Cable TV and utilities to conclusion.
To achieve these, CBN invited nominations from the stakeholders for capable people to serve in any of the new Initiative Working Groups, one for each industry vertical, comprising the user community, banks and other service providers.
The groups will work on the principle of identifying quick wins for an initial period of two years, with an option to extend for another two-year term, subject to the level of achievements.
E-Financial
NIBBS: Banks Close 29.4m Accounts, Dormant Accounts Hit 33.39m

Banks in Nigeria closed 29.4 million accounts as of March 2025, according to the latest report by the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS).
The figure represents a sharp year-on-year increase of 30.43 per cent from the 22.54 million closed accounts recorded in March 2024.
It also reflects a steady rise in account closures over recent months, with 33.29 million closed accounts reported in February 2025 and 29.43 million in January.
The report also revealed a significant increase in dormant accounts, which surged to 33.39 million in March 2025, up from 19.79 million in the same period in 2024, a 71.3 per cent rise in inactive accounts over the past year.
Despite the spike in closures and dormant accounts, the number of active bank accounts rose from 219.64 million in March 2024 to 320.05 million in March 2025, representing an increase of over 100 million, or 45.7 per cent.
NIBSS defines a dormant account as one that has seen no deposit, withdrawal, transfer, or point-of-sale transaction for a period of six months.
The surge in account closures and dormancy follows the Central Bank of Nigeria’s directive issued in December 2023, mandating commercial banks to restrict Tier-1 accounts not linked to a Bank Verification Number (BVN) and National Identification Number (NIN) by March 1, 2024.
In response to the directive, BVN enrolment increased from 61.6 million in April 2024 to 66.23 million by July 2025, as more Nigerians rushed to meet the CBN’s compliance deadline.
E-Financial
Cardoso, CBN Boss Risks Arrest over Alleged N5.2 Trillion Unremitted Funds

The Joint Committee of the House of Representatives on Public Accounts and Public Assets has threatened to issue a warrant of arrest against Mr. Olayemi Cardoso, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), over repeated failure to honour its invitations regarding the probe into non-compliance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 and Finance Act 2020.

Olayemi Cardoso,, Gov, CBN
In a joint statement released on Friday and signed by Hon. Bamidele Salam and Hon. Ademorin Kuye, chairmen of the committees, the lawmakers decried the CBN governor’s continued disregard for legislative summons.
The committee is investigating the non-remittance of operating surplus as well as the mismanagement of unclaimed dividends and dormant account balances.
According to the committee, the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation reported a liability of N5.2 trillion in unremitted operating surplus due to the federal government from 2016 to 2022; a claim corroborated by the Fiscal Responsibility Commission in a separate submission to the National Assembly.
The committee cited provisions of the Finance Act 2020, which mandate that unclaimed dividends from publicly listed companies and dormant bank account balances older than six years be transferred into the Unclaimed Fund Trust Fund. The fund is to be managed by a Governing Council led by the Minister of Finance and the Debt Management Office (DMO).
Contrary to this, the CBN maintains that the Financial Institutions Act 2020 empowers it to manage dormant balances.
However, the committee noted that the Attorney General of the Federation has issued a legal opinion affirming that the Finance Act 2020 remains the valid law guiding the management of such funds.
Following extensive submissions, the committee resolved that the CBN must remit N3.64 trillion, representing 70% of the undisputed N5.2 trillion operating surplus, within 14 days from receipt of its June 27, 2025, directive, pending final reconciliation of the disputed amount.
Additionally, the apex bank was directed to submit a detailed report on the total sum of unclaimed dividends and dormant account balances by June 30, 2025.
The CBN was also ordered to transfer these funds into the Unclaimed Fund Trust Fund within 14 days and furnish the House with evidence of the transaction.
The lawmakers expressed frustration that, despite the clear directives and ample time, the CBN governor has failed to respond or appear before the joint committee to provide an explanation.
“In view of this continued defiance, the Committee will be compelled to exercise its constitutional powers to compel Mr. Olayemi Cardoso to appear before it,” the statement warned.
E-Financial
Moody’s Upgrades Ecobank’s Outlook to Stable

Moody’s has upgraded the outlook on Ecobank Transnational Incorporated’s long-term issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings to stable from negative.
In the latest rating commentary, made available to media on Thursday, Moody’s also affirmed the pan-African banking group’s B3/Not Prime long- and short-term issuer ratings; B3 senior unsecured debt rating; b2 notional Baseline Credit Assessment and b1 Adjusted BCA.
ETI’s subsidiaries operate across 38 countries, including 35 African countries, and total assets of $28.9bn as of March 2025, details from the rating note highlighted. Moody’s said the decision to change the outlook to stable on the long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings reflects ETI’s resilient financial performance.
The rating upgrade also takes into consideration higher dividends being upstreamed to ETI, resulting in lower double leverage and reduced refinancing risk.
The rating adjustment also reflects an expectation that the recapitalisation process of Ecobank Nigeria Limited will be completed by the end of 2025, with limited impact on the group’s financial fundamentals.
“The stable outlook also captures our expectation that a series of capital-boosting initiatives and actions to cure Ecobank Nigeria’s total capital position will be completed before the end of 2025”, according to the ratings agency.
In May 2025, ETI received shareholder approval to raise $250 million in Additional Tier 1 (AT1) capital and announced the launch of the transaction effective 9 July 2025, of which a portion is expected to be downstreamed to Ecobank Nigeria as AT1 capital during Q3 2025.
Ecobank Nigeria’s plan to raise $200m in AT1 capital was noted in the rating note. The ratings analysts said they consider
“We also note that Ecobank Nigeria’s recent successful offer to tender $150m of its February 2026 $300 million notes and consent to remove the capital adequacy ratio covenant from this bond’s terms alleviates risks of an event of default in Nigeria that would trigger cross default at the ETI level. Over the past year, ETI has shown resilience in its financial performance, which supports our change in outlook to stable. Liquidity risks are being moderated by the group’s gradually improving profitability during 2024 and Q1-2025.
“This has translated into a 22 per cent increase in dividends upstreamed to ETI during 2024, these being received from 22 dividend-paying subsidiaries compared to just 14 in 2021,” the rating commentary revealed.
In turn, albeit high, ETI’s double leverage ratio, which measures the liquidity risk taken on by the holding company, as a result of it borrowing in order to invest in the equity of its subsidiaries, has eased to 168 per cent as of December 2024 from 173 per cent in 2023.
Additionally, the stable outlook reflects reduced liquidity risk at the holding company level with the refinancing of short-term liabilities in 2024 with longer-term funding.
Moody’s said this is underpinned by demonstrated market access, notably through senior unsecured notes issuance of $400m in October 2024 and a tap increase of $125m in May 2025, maturing in October 2029.
ETI’s B3 long-term issuer ratings affirmation reflects the affirmation of the group’s b2 notional BCA; the affirmation of the group’s b1 adjusted BCA as captured by a one-notch uplift for affiliate support, reflecting Moody’s assessment of a moderate probability that the firm’s major institutional shareholders would extend support to the group. Moody’s said asset quality for the group has improved over recent years.
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