CBN Sets Deadline for Banks to Migrate to ISO 20022
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued a fresh directive mandating all banks, mobile money operators, super agents, and other licensed players in the payments ecosystem to complete migration to the ISO 20022 payment messaging standard and geo-tag all point-of-sale (POS) terminals by October 31, 2025.
The measure, while aligning the domestic financial system with international standards, is also aimed at curbing rising fraud cases across Nigeria’s electronic payments landscape.
The apex bank noted that fraudulent practices by rogue POS operators and the abuse of payment devices have created vulnerabilities that demand tighter surveillance, making geo-tagging and standardised messaging critical to restoring confidence in the retail payment system.
In a circular signed by the Director of the Payments System Supervision Department, CBN, Dr. Rakiya Yusuf, it stressed that all payment transaction messages exchanged both domestically and internationally must now be formatted in ISO 20022, ensuring standardised, high-quality data with accurate identifiers for payers, payees, merchants, and agents.
They reiterated that this uniform standard would enhance compliance with international benchmarks, improve transparency, and make it harder for fraudsters to exploit loopholes in payment messaging.
On the geo-tagging requirement, the CBN directed stated that all existing and newly deployed payment terminals must have native geolocation services enabled with double-frequency GPS receivers to ensure reliable positioning.
Each device must be registered with a Payment Terminal Service Aggregator (PTSA), reflecting accurate latitude and longitude coordinates of the merchant or agent location.
“All payment transaction messages exchanged domestically or internationally must be formatted in ISO 20022 in line with CBN and SWIFT specifications.
“All Institutions shall ensure complete and accurate population of mandatory Data elements, including payer/payee identifiers, merchant/agent identifiers, and transaction metadata.
“All in-scope institutions must complete migration activities and be fully compliant not later than October 31, 2025.” On terminal geo-location, it added: “All existing and newly deployed payment terminals must have native geolocation services enabled, with Double-Frequency GPS receivers for reliable geo-location service.
It added: “All Operators (PTSAs, PTSPs, PTADs, Acquirers) are to ensure their PoS Terminals and Applications are duly certified by the National Central Switch to align with the listed standards.
“As part of the Certification process, all payment terminals must have the National Central Switch SDK for Geolocation monitoring and Geofencing implemented within the libraries of its PoS Application.”
Furthermore, it noted that Android Operating System (OS) v10 is the minimum OS requirement across all terminals to ensure compatibility and seamless integration with the National Central Switch Geolocation SDK.
It stated: The SDK for geolocation monitoring must be initialised at the registered business/service location. A radius of 10 meters outside the registered business/service location is the permitted geofence for all merchant activity.
“Geo-location data must be captured at transaction initiation and included in the message payload as a mandatory reporting field.”
It added that terminals not directly routed to a PTSA are not permitted to transact and that all existing terminals and newly registered terminals must ensure strict adherence always to approved MSC code per sector.
“All existing terminals must be geo-tagged within 60 days of this circular; new terminals going forward must be geo-tagged before certification and activation.
“CBN will commence compliance validation exercises from October 20, 2025,” it further stated. #CBN Sets Deadline for Banks to Migrate to ISO 20022 Nigeria’s Borrowing Cost Eased as African Eurobonds Rally
