The Central Bank of Nigeria's high value payment system has gone live on SWIFT. The move to SWIFT is a key element of the Central Bank of Nigeria's Payment System Vision 2020 (PSV2020), which calls for a "Nationally Utilised and Internationally Recognised" payments system and provides a robust platform to support Nigeria's continued economic growth.

The adoption of SWIFT for the infrastructure of Nigeria's high-value payments - via its Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system - will support improvements in interoperability of the country's financial infrastructure, helping to improve settlement security and eliminate risk. SWIFT connectivity ensures Nigeria comply with global standards for critical payment infrastructure as set out by the Bank for International Settlements, providing the Nigerian financial system with a future-proof payments infrastructure and helping Nigeria to integrate with other financial markets in the region and globally.

The move by the CBN mirrors those of leading payment systems around the world and In Africa. Nigeria is the 20th country in Africa to adopt SWIFT for its domestic payments as well as its international payments infrastructure. Globally, clearing and settlement systems in more than 90 countries, carrying more than 240 million payments a year, already rely on SWIFT.

Using SWIFT provides proven benefits for the broader financial community in Nigeria. Financial institutions and corporates can use the same SWIFT connection for both domestic and international payment traffic. Reusing existing infrastructure and automatically complying with global standards reduces IT costs for the entire community.  

Important step in development of West African Monetary Zone

The move is also an important step for Nigeria within the West African Monetary Zone, a group of six countries (The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone) that plan to introduce a single currency and use a common payment system in order to boost regional trade and investment.

Hugo Smit, Head of Africa South, SWIFT, said: "By ensuring that Nigeria's infrastructure is interoperable with both regional and international platforms, the move to SWIFT means that the Nigerian financial community will be easily able to interoperate within the West African Monetary Zone as this regional harmonisation project matures."

SWIFT is working closely with all the participants in WAMZ towards the development of the regional payment system. Already, payments systems in The Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone are live on SWIFT.