The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) has launched the National Payment Stack (NPS), an instant payments platform built on technology from United States-based Transactility. The system is designed to upgrade digital transactions across Nigeria, supporting seamless transfers, QR code payments and additional services.

The platform draws on Transactility's jPOS open-source technology, a software framework used to build payment applications, and the jPTS payment switch as NIBSS works to strengthen the country's financial infrastructure. Built around the ISO 20022 messaging standard — an international standard for financial messaging used by payment systems around the world — the NPS will enable financial institutions to exchange richer, more structured transaction data.

The platform is intended to support instant account-to-account transfers, QR payments at merchants, payments through user-friendly identifiers such as phone numbers, and bulk payments. NIBSS has adopted a modular architecture that combines its in-house technology with selected open-source tools, an approach designed to allow the system to adapt as market needs evolve.

A central element of the arrangement is NIBSS's access to the source code, which gives the organization the flexibility to modify and improve the platform without being fully dependent on a single vendor.

Premier Oiwoh, NIBSS's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, said the platform was built to meet the demands of Nigeria's market.

"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," Oiwoh said.

Alejandro Revilla, founder and chief technology officer of Transactility, described the selection of the company's technology as a significant moment for the firm and the broader payments industry. He said the partnership demonstrated how open technology and local engineering could be combined to build payment infrastructure for a national market.

"This development is an important milestone for Transactility and the wider payments community," Revilla said. "We are proud that NIBSS selected technologies from the jPOS ecosystem for the National Payment Stack. NPS shows how open technology and local engineering can be used to build national payment infrastructure at scale."

The open-source approach gives NIBSS greater control over how the National Payment Stack develops over time. By moving away from a vendor-dependent proprietary model, NIBSS can access and adjust the underlying code directly, tailoring the platform to its specific requirements.

The announcement, however, leaves several questions open. It does not disclose transaction volumes or performance metrics that would benchmark the NPS against existing payment systems, and it does not specify when the promised payment features will become available. For banks and fintech companies, the platform's value will hinge on its deployment, its connectivity with financial institutions, and its ability to improve the speed and reliability of digital payments.

While the NPS is expected to play a significant role in Nigeria's payments landscape, it will not immediately replace existing instant transfer services. Its true impact will become clearer as details on implementation and adoption emerge.

NIBSS, owned by the Central Bank of Nigeria and licensed deposit banks, facilitates interbank transactions, the Bank Verification Number system and a range of other services across Nigeria's financial sector. Transactility, a payment-processing technology company based in Boca Raton, Florida, supplies the underlying technology for the new platform. Whether the partnership delivers faster, more reliable payments for consumers and businesses will ultimately depend on the NPS's execution and real-world performance.