The governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele on Thursday unveiled the first African Central Bank-led National Domestic Scheme( AfriGo), says the new card scheme will be accessible to all Nigerians and also address our local peculiarities
The domestic card scheme is expected to strengthen the national payment system and deepen the usage of the electronic platform in Nigeria, he said.
The Governor also declared that going forward, dollar charges on all domestic cards and online transactions would not be permitted.
The CBN governor also assured Nigerians that the card scheme will open more opportunities for the Nigerian economy to integrate the informal segment of the economy, reduce shadow banking and bring more Nigerians into the formal financial services
The CBN governor hails the Nigeria Banking community for rising to the challenges of strengthening the national payments system through the implementation of a domestic Card Scheme.
This effort is not a quest to prevent international service providers from continuing to provide services in Nigeria
Emefele says the new policy aimed at providing more options for domestic consumers while also promoting the delivery of services in a more innovative, cost effective and competitive manner.
CBN is committed to a robust, efficient and safe national payment system and welcomes innovations from both domestic firms and foreign investors.
“We need to capture them in national statistics to further understand their transactions dynamics and properly target interventions in that sector. We can no longer neglect the vast majority of Nigerians whose daily payment needs are micropayment,” he said.
He said the CBN had over time focused attention on the robust development of financial service touchpoints including the ATMs, POS terminals, and agent networks, explaining that 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.
Emefiele said while the penetration of card payments in Nigeria has grown tremendously over the years, many Nigerians are still excluded.
He said that the challenges that have limited the inclusion of Nigerians included the high cost of card services as a result of foreign exchange requirements of international card schemes and the fact that existing card products do not address local peculiarities of the Nigerian market.
According to him, the cashless policy which commenced in 2012, signposts the CBN’s common drive to strengthen the national payment system and deepen the usage of electronic platforms in the country.
He said in line with the National Payments System Strategy, the CBN had been deliberate in collaborating with relevant stakeholders to enhance the national payments infrastructure through initiatives such as the Bank Verification Number (BVN), Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS), Shared Agent Network Facility (SANEF), Regulatory Sandbox, Open Banking, and the eNaira.