CBN Mandates Nigerian Banks, Fintechs To Implement PoS Dual Connectivity

CBN has instructed Nigerian banks and fintechs to implement dual connectivity for PoS accounts in the country.

Brand News Day Nigeria reports that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued a fresh mandate requiring all commercial banks, financial institutions, acquirers and payment service providers to implement compulsory dual connectivity for Point of Sale (PoS) transactions within the next one month.

The directive, contained in a circular dated December 11, 2025, and signed by the Director of Payments System Supervision, Rakiya Yusuf, updates an earlier regulation introduced in September 2024.

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According to the CBN, the new rule is designed to curb the recurring PoS downtime caused by institutions depending on a single transaction channel. The apex bank said the dual connectivity policy will enhance payment reliability and strengthen the resilience of Nigeria’s electronic payment ecosystem.

Under the new framework, acquirers, processors and payment terminal service providers must maintain active links with both the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) and Unified Payment Services Limited (UPSL).

To enforce the directive, the CBN has also introduced mandatory redundancy and failover testing. NIBSS and UPSL are expected to collaborate with regulated institutions to verify their ability to maintain uninterrupted service. The results of these tests will form part of the CBN’s supervisory assessment.

The circular further imposes stricter incident-reporting requirements. Both NIBSS and UPSL must immediately alert banks of any downtime and submit a full incident report to the Payments System Supervision Department within 24 hours, detailing the cause of the outage, its impact and corrective steps taken.

“The policy aims to address frequent PoS downtime caused by overreliance on a single transaction channel,” the circular stated.

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The new CBN directive comes just days after the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) ordered unregistered PoS operators to register or face enforcement actions, while also cautioning fintech companies against unethical practices.