NPS Records 26.55m Transactions Worth N1.4trn as FirstBank, Fidelity Lead

By Adebola Muili

The National Payment Stack (NPS), Nigeria’s new sovereign digital payments infrastructure, has processed 26.55 million transactions valued at ₦1.4 trillion across 48 participating institutions, barely weeks into its rollout.

The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) Plc disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday, August 11, 2026, describing the early transaction figures as evidence of rapid commercial adoption of the platform.

According to NIBSS, First Bank of Nigeria currently leads the industry in transaction volume, while Fidelity Bank ranks first in overall transaction value. Other major early adopters include Guaranty Trust Bank, Sterling Bank, Access Bank and Moniepoint.

The NPS is designed to succeed the 15-year-old NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) system and modernise Nigeria’s financial ecosystem by unifying payments, identity and data on a single intelligent rail.

The platform is built on the ISO 20022 data architecture, which NIBSS said would enable structured and metadata-rich transactions, automate corporate reconciliation, streamline merchant collections and support request-to-pay invoicing.

It also consolidates single transfers and high-volume corporate disbursements on one platform, while supporting direct debits, asynchronous processing and deferred settlement options.

NIBSS said the platform incorporates automated sanctions screening, account validation, end-to-end encryption and real-time risk scoring to strengthen fraud detection and compliance before transactions are executed.

The payment infrastructure also provides participating financial institutions with real-time visibility of their net positions and continuous settlement accounting to improve liquidity management.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NIBSS, Premier Oiwoh, described the NPS as an economic catalyst capable of transforming Nigeria’s payment infrastructure beyond basic transaction processing.

“The National Payment Stack represents an economic catalyst moving our financial infrastructure from basic transaction processing to comprehensive payment intelligence,” Oiwoh said.

He added that the ISO 20022-compliant, multi-currency platform would enhance interoperability, strengthen security and facilitate regional trade.

Oiwoh, however, urged all participating financial services institutions to immediately activate the relevant messaging and fund-transfer credit and debit processing rails to ensure full ecosystem readiness.

He said NIBSS remained committed to providing technical support, guidelines and integration assistance to institutions to achieve full compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC) validation standards and optimise API usage.

According to him, completing the integration would help prevent platform congestion, enforce proper usage standards and safeguard system performance as the industry moves towards full migration from the legacy NIP rail.

Also, the Director of the Payments System Supervision Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. (Mrs.) Rakiya Opemi Yusuf, urged financial institutions to accelerate their integration with the NPS during a recent working visit to the NIBSS headquarters.

Her position, NIBSS said, reinforces the CBN’s regulatory support for the adoption of the ISO 20022 standard across Nigeria’s payment system.

NIBSS said the ultimate objective was to achieve a seamless, industry-wide transition to the NPS and subsequently decommission the legacy NIP infrastructure.

The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc was incorporated in 1993 and commenced operations in June 1994. It is owned by licensed banks in Nigeria, including the CBN, and provides infrastructure for inter-bank payments and settlement.