CBN Orders Banks to Complete Payment System Upgrade by Oct. 31
The Central Bank of Nigeria has issued a fresh directive mandating all participants in the country’s payment ecosystem to complete migration to the ISO 20022 messaging standard and implement mandatory geo-tagging of payment terminals by October 31, 2025.
In a circular published on its website on Tuesday, the apex bank reminded Deposit Money Banks, Microfinance Banks, Mobile Money Operators, Switching and Processing Companies, Payment Terminal Service Providers, Payment Solution Service Providers, Super Agents, and other licensed operators that ISO 20022 is now the global benchmark for payments messaging.
The circular, signed by the Director of the Payments System Supervision Department, Dr Rakiya Yusuf, and dated August 25, 2025, stated that the move aligns with SWIFT’s global migration timeline and is intended to standardise quality data across Nigeria’s financial system.
“All payment transaction messages exchanged domestically or internationally must be formatted in ISO 20022 in line with CBN and SWIFT specifications,” it noted, adding that institutions must also ensure accurate population of mandatory data elements, including payer and payee identifiers, merchant and agent identifiers, and transaction metadata.
The CBN stressed that compliance with these requirements is not optional and warned that all in-scope institutions must complete migration activities and achieve full compliance before the October 31 deadline.
Compliance validation exercises are scheduled to commence on October 20, 2025. Beyond messaging standards, the bank introduced mandatory geo-tagging of payment terminals to enhance oversight and curb fraud in the electronic payments space.
It directed that all existing and newly deployed terminals must have native geolocation services enabled with double-frequency GPS receivers and be registered with a Payment Terminal Service Aggregator using precise latitude and longitude coordinates.
It further mandated that Android OS version 10 will be the minimum software requirement for all terminals to ensure compatibility with the National Central Switch’s geolocation monitoring system.
Terminals not directly routed through a PTSA will not be permitted to transact, while geo-location data must be captured at the point of transaction and included in the message payload as a mandatory reporting field.
“All existing terminals must be geo-tagged within 60 days of this circular; new terminals going forward must be geo-tagged before certification and activation,” the circular stated.
According to the apex bank, these reforms are aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s payments infrastructure, boosting transparency, and aligning with international best practices.