(L-R) Founder and CTO, Transactility Alejandro Revilla, ; Managing Director/CEO, NIBSS Premier Oiwoh,
• Open-source architecture supports QR payments, phone-number addressing, allows for greater flexibility over upgrades, product development
James Emejo in Abuja
Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) has deployed a new national payments platform built on open-source technology, giving the operator greater control over the development and expansion of critical digital payment infrastructure as transaction volumes and service demands evolve.
The National Payment Stack (NPS), designed and developed by NIBSS, uses technology supplied by United States-based Transactility, including its jPTS switching platform, to support instant payments based on the ISO 20022 messaging standard.
The arrangement allows NIBSS to retain access to the platform’s source code and control its architecture, development roadmap, and locally developed intellectual property, potentially reducing dependence on proprietary technology vendors for future upgrades and modifications.
NIBSS Managing Director/Chief Executive, Premier Oiwoh, said the platform was designed to meet the scale and requirements of the Nigerian market.
In a statement, Oiwoh said, “The NPS was designed and built for the scale and demands of the Nigerian payments market. The jPOS ecosystem gives us the flexibility to continue developing the platform as the ecosystem evolves.”
Platform Targets Wider Payment Services
NPS supports account-to-account instant transfers, QR-code merchant payments, alias-based transactions using identifiers, such as phone numbers, and bulk payments.
Its architecture is designed to deliver the processing performance and availability required for national payment infrastructure while providing room for additional services as the market develops.
A key feature is its adoption of ISO 20022, an international financial messaging standard that enables more structured and detailed information to accompany payment transactions.
Its use provides a foundation for developing payment services around richer transaction data and greater interoperability, subject to implementation and integration requirements.
NIBSS built the platform using a modular architecture that combines its own engineering capabilities with selected open-source and enterprise technologies.
The company has used jPOS, an open-source framework for payment transaction processing, for years, particularly in systems based on the ISO 8583 messaging standard.
For NPS, it adopted jPTS and its ISO 20022 capabilities to develop a switching platform suited to the demands of Nigeria’s payments market.
The arrangement gives NIBSS access to the underlying technology while allowing it to customise and extend the system as operational needs and regulatory requirements change, rather than relying solely on a proprietary vendor’s product-development timetable.
The extent to which the new platform improves transaction costs, processing speeds, and service reliability will depend on its operational performance and adoption across the payments ecosystem.
Partnership Combines Local Engineering with Established Technology
Transactility, which develops and supports products within the jPOS ecosystem, says the deployment demonstrates how open technology can be combined with local engineering to build payment infrastructure at national scale.
The company’s founder and Chief Technology Officer, Alejandro Revilla, described the selection of its technology for NPS as a milestone for the company and the wider payments community.
Revilla said the deployment illustrated the role open-source technology could play in supporting large-scale payment systems.
Transactility’s products include jPTS, jCard and ISO/Bridge, while its jPOS framework has been used for more than 25 years to develop payment gateways, switching systems, and transaction-processing infrastructure.
NIBSS, incorporated in 1993, is owned by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and all licensed deposit money banks in the country.
It operates critical infrastructure for interbank clearing and settlement, alongside services supporting identity verification through the Bank Verification Number system and electronic payments.
The rollout of NPS adds another layer to the country’s digital payments infrastructure as its longer-term significance will rest on the platform’s ability to sustain reliable transaction processing, accommodate new services, and give NIBSS the flexibility to respond to the changing needs of banks, businesses, consumers, and regulators.