National payment stack, e-visas… reforms shaping Nigeria’s DPI push
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Around the world, governments are paying renewed attention to digital public infrastructure (DPI), which is the foundational digital systems that enable societies to function, from identity and payments to data exchange and public service delivery. DPI has become central to how people access financial services, healthcare, education, social protection, justice, and even democratic participation. It has made everyday life more connected and inclusive.
DPI is shaping a new landscape where services are more accessible, identities are secure, and economies are increasingly inclusive.
DPI, as defined by the G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration, “is a set of shared digital systems that are secure and interoperable, built on open technologies, to deliver equitable access to public and/or private services at a societal scale”.
When these systems work well together, they simplify everyday interactions, including paying for goods, receiving government benefits, verifying identity, applying for visas, resolving disputes, or conducting business online.
Over the past decade, Nigeria has made significant progress in establishing the foundational elements of its digital infrastructure. The introduction of the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) Instant Payment (NIP) in 2011 transformed the country’s financial landscape, enabling real-time fund transfers and laying the groundwork for today’s fintech innovation. The rollout of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) brought greater security and identity consistency to the banking sector, while the expansion of the National Identification Number (NIN) established a unified digital identity system intended to streamline everything from SIM registration to government services.
Together, these systems have shaped Nigeria’s early DPI framework, allowing millions to transact more easily, access financial services, and interact with both private and public institutions. They also created the foundation upon which newer layers of digital public infrastructure can be built.Nigeria, in 2025, introduced a new wave of reforms aimed at strengthening interoperability, modernising public-facing systems, and aligning with global standards for open and inclusive digital ecosystems.Below are five key moves the country made in 2025 to advance its digital public infrastructure.
- LAUNCH OF THE NATIONAL PAYMENT STACK (NPS)
Nigeria’s most significant DPI milestone in 2025 was the launch of the National Payment Stack (NPS). The NPS is a unified digital payments backbone designed to make transactions faster, interoperable, and more reliable. Built by NIBSS, the platform connects banks, fintechs, and mobile-money operators on a single rail, reducing fragmentation in the payments ecosystem.
According to the NIBSS, the NPS, developed as a next-generation payment infrastructure, reflects its commitment to speed, innovation, interoperability and security — crucial pillars in supporting Nigeria’s fast-growing digital economy.
The settlement system described the payment infrastructure as the new engine driving Nigeria’s next phase of payment innovation.
The first live transaction on the system was carried out on November 7, 2025, and completed in milliseconds.
Built on the ISO 20022 international standard for financial messaging, this global framework enhances data richness, interoperability, and regulatory compliance, aligning Nigeria’s payment infrastructure with the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) mandating ISO 20022 adoption for all electronic financial transactions
- FULL TRANSITION TO ELECTRONIC VISAS UNDER THE NIGERIA VISA POLICY 2025
In 2025, Nigeria redesigned a major public-facing service by transitioning from a visa-on-arrival regime to a fully electronic visa (e-Visa) system for most short-stay categories. Under the new Nigeria Visa Policy (NVP 2025), applications, approvals, and entry authorisations are now processed digitally, supported by automated landing and exit systems at ports of entry.
In addition to being accessible online, the e-visa has a processing time of 24 to 48 hours. The platform is also said to be user-friendly, providing a step-by-step guide to applicants throughout the process.
Approved e-Visas are sent directly to applicants via email, eliminating the need for physical visa stickers.
Additionally, the e-visa has enhanced security features. The system integrates with international databases for pre-screening, enhancing border security.
- ATMS AND POS TERMINALS ENABLED FOR INTERNATIONAL CARDSIn 2025, Nigeria took a significant step toward strengthening its digital public infrastructure by directing banks to reconfigure automated teller machines (ATMs) and point-of-sale (POS) terminals to accept internationally issued payment cards.
The move expands the reach of Nigeria’s digital payments layer, which is one of the three foundational pillars of DPI.
Until recently, many ATMs and POS terminals in the country were largely optimised for domestic card schemes, limiting seamless payment experiences for foreign visitors, diaspora-linked transactions, and cross-border commerce. By enabling international card acceptance, Nigeria’s payments infrastructure becomes more interoperable with global financial systems.
Interoperability – a term used to describe the ability of different systems to work together — is a core principle of DPI. The directive allows Nigeria’s payment rails to interface more efficiently with international card networks, reducing friction for businesses, travellers, and service providers operating across borders.
- JOINING THE DIGITAL PUBLIC GOODS ALLIANCE (DPGA)
In October 2025, Nigeria became the newest member of the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA), a United Nations-endorsed global initiative that promotes the discovery, use, and scaling of open-source digital public goods. Digital public goods include open software, open data, open AI systems, and open content designed to be interoperable, transparent, and aligned with global privacy and safety standards.
Nigeria’s membership signifies a strong commitment to building an open, inclusive, and collaborative digital ecosystem in which government innovation is transparent and interoperable and where citizens benefit from solutions built to global standards. It also positions Nigeria to learn from global best practices, contribute homegrown digital solutions, and foster public-private partnerships to standardise and scale digital public goods across public services like civil registration, health information, and data collection.
By integrating digital public goods into its DPI framework and developing national guidelines for their adoption, Nigeria aims to strengthen service delivery in critical sectors such as education and health while also demonstrating regional and global leadership in inclusive digital transformation.
- 1GOV ECM PLATFORM
In November 2025, the federal government launched the 1Gov Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Platform, developed and powered by Galaxy Backbone Limited, as part of a broader shift toward a fully digital civil service. The platform centralises document management, automates workflows, enables e-signatures and promotes interoperable communication across ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) on the government’s sovereign 1Gov Cloud infrastructure.
The rollout is a defining moment in Nigeria’s public-sector digital transformation, bringing the country closer to a paperless government by the end of 2025 and strengthening national digital sovereignty, seamless data exchange, and efficient, transparent governance.
OTHER DPI-RELATED DEVELOPMENTS
Beyond the reforms highlighted above, 2025 also saw quieter but important DPI-adjacent developments, including the expansion of contactless payment systems in public infrastructure such as airports, signalling a gradual shift toward cash-lite government services and reinforcing the role of digital payments as everyday public utilities.
In the identity space, the rollout of tools such as the NIN Authentication (NINAuth) app marked another step toward user-controlled digital identity. The application is designed to allow individuals to authorise and manage how their National Identification Number is verified by third parties, addressing long-standing concerns around consent, privacy, and misuse of identity data.
Another notable initiative was the rollout of the ECOWAS National Biometric Identity Card (ENBIC) in Nigeria. The card, which serves as a regional identity credential, enables biometric identification across member states and is designed to support cross-border mobility, security, and access to services within the West African sub-region. While regional in scope, the ENBIC builds on Nigeria’s national digital identity framework and reinforces the role of interoperable identity systems as a core pillar of digital public infrastructure. Nigeria is the seventh ECOWAS country to operationalise the system
Together, these initiatives point to a broader, if still evolving, effort to embed digital public infrastructure into everyday governance and economic activity.
This report is produced under the DPI Africa Journalism Fellowship Programme of the Media Foundation for West Africa and Co-Develop.
- National payment stack, e-visas... reforms shaping Nigeria’s DPI push | TheCable
- ATMS AND POS TERMINALS ENABLED FOR INTERNATIONAL CARDSIn 2025, Nigeria took a significant step toward strengthening its digital public infrastructure by directing banks to reconfigure automated teller machines (ATMs) and point-of-sale (POS) terminals to accept internationally issued payment cards.
- FULL TRANSITION TO ELECTRONIC VISAS UNDER THE NIGERIA VISA POLICY 2025
