Nigeria, once regarded as a fast follower in Africa’s digital finance race, is rapidly reshaping the continent’s payments landscape as instant payment systems record unprecedented growth, challenging Kenya’s long-held dominance in mobile money.
For more than a decade, Kenya; powered by the trailblazing M-Pesa platform has been Africa’s reference point for real-time and mobile money transactions, with instant payments accounting for more than 200 per cent of its Gross National Income (GNI). But new data and expert assessments indicate that Nigeria is now narrowing the gap at remarkable speed, driven by regulatory reforms, fintech innovation and mass consumer adoption.
According to The EastAfrican, the value of transactions processed through Nigeria’s real-time payment platforms has surged sharply, signalling a significant reordering of Africa’s digital payments ecosystem. The trend reflects growing confidence in instant payments across banks, fintechs and mobile platforms, positioning Nigeria as an emerging continental leader.
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Instant payments allow funds to move between accounts in real time, settling within seconds and becoming immediately available to recipients. In Nigeria, such transactions span traditional banking rails, mobile money services and fintech-enabled payment gateways, making them integral to everyday commerce.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has acknowledged the scale of this transformation. Speaking in June 2025, the apex bank described Nigeria’s instant payment infrastructure as among the most advanced globally, citing its speed, efficiency and widespread adoption as benchmarks for other markets.
That view was echoed by Musa Jimoh, Director of Payments System Policy at the CBN, during the FintechNGR Quarter Two Regulators’ Forum Webinar themed “Beyond Compliance: Unlocking Innovation with Nigeria’s Open Banking Framework.” Jimoh said Nigeria’s payment ecosystem has undergone a profound evolution over nearly two decades, shaped by deliberate policy direction and sustained regulatory oversight.
“Our payments happen within seconds, and that is a very big one for Nigeria as a country,” Jimoh said, describing instant payments as a cornerstone of financial inclusion and economic participation.
He traced the system’s roots to 2006, when the CBN launched its first payment system vision to modernise financial infrastructure. A major turning point came in 2010 with the mandate for PIN-based card transactions, which enabled widespread EMV card adoption and strengthened electronic payments. Subsequent reforms expanded the ecosystem further through KYC regulations, mobile banking and mobile money frameworks, agent banking and the cashless policy.
Today, Nigeria has issued more than 160 licences to institutions providing financial and payment services, alongside significant infrastructure upgrades by banks and switching companies to support rising transaction volumes. The introduction of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) also strengthened security and trust, laying the groundwork for more sophisticated digital services.
More recently, the CBN has shifted its focus to open banking as the next phase of growth. Jimoh explained that while financial institutions hold vast customer data, fragmentation has limited its effective use. Open banking, he said, would enable developers to access permissioned data with customer consent to build innovative products, deepen competition, lower costs and accelerate financial inclusion.
He acknowledged challenges around API standardisation and cybersecurity but said the CBN has set up dedicated workstreams and a regulatory sandbox to balance innovation with system stability. “The goal is to create an environment where openness, inclusiveness and innovation drive national economic resilience and prosperity,” Jimoh said.
As Nigeria’s instant payment volumes continue to climb, the country’s trajectory highlights a broader shift in Africa’s digital finance landscape; one in which scale, regulation and fintech collaboration are proving just as decisive as early innovation.
