CBN's domestic card scheme

• Published date: 24 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

Last week, the media gleefully reported the deployment, by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), of its home-grown credit card scheme. Alluding to the 'significant transformation in its payments system over the past decade', the apex bank listed among its many benefits, the reduction of cost and use of foreign exchange, protection of data sovereignty; it noted that the card has the potential to leverage its platform 'for seamless dissemination of government-to-person payments and other social impact initiatives, ultimately enhancing financial inclusion and supporting the growth of a robust digital economy'.

The card, it said, will be delivered through Nigeria's central switch, the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) Plc, in conjunction with the Bankers Committee and other financial ecosystem stakeholders. In all, local banks and other financial institutions, it said, will be in a position to offer payment solutions like debit, credit, virtual, loyalty and tokenised cards, non-interest card, identity card.

We welcome the latest offering by the apex bank even if the information available on its operability and to a lesser extent, relevance, is disappointingly short. Going by what was reported in the media, the new card scheme would seem the CBN's answer to the hordes of foreign controlled card schemes currently in operation. Even at that, nowhere did any of the reports hint on how the latest card will interface with those existing cards, the question of its international acceptability, and more crucially, the vast differences between it and the others in the increasingly dynamic payment environment.

Will the domestic credit card be allowed to exist side by side with those earlier ones and hence give Nigerians the benefit of which to choose from? How will the card stand against those already regarded as being among the global best? On the other hand, will it mark the gradual phase-out of the foreign cards given that the CBN was specific on the issues of sovereignty and data protection and the need to assert domestic control of these?

What additional benefits can Nigerians expect to get outside of...