Naira ends week higher, gains N1.65 against dollar at official market
The Nigerian naira closed the week on a positive note on Friday, appreciating by N1.65 against the United States dollar at the official foreign exchange market.
Data published on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) website showed that the local currency traded at N1,454.41 per dollar on Friday, representing a 0.11 per cent gain compared to N1,456.06 recorded on Thursday.
Despite opening the week with slight depreciation, the naira recorded minimal losses during the week. It traded at N1,455.38 on Wednesday, reflecting relative stability in the official market.
Earlier in the week, the currency exchanged at N1,451.86 on Monday before weakening marginally to N1,454.38 on Tuesday.
The week’s performance underscores continued efforts by monetary authorities to stabilise the foreign exchange market amid ongoing reforms and liquidity management by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
By Seun Ibiyemi
In a bid to tackle persistent failures of Point of Sale (PoS) terminals, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed all acquirers, processors, payment terminal service aggregators and providers to establish dual connectivity with the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) and Unified Payment Services Limited (UPSL) within one month
The directive, contained in circular PSS/DIR/PUB/CIR/001/002 and signed by the Director of the Payments System Supervision Department, Rakiya Yusuf, builds on a September 2024 policy aimed at ending reliance on single routing channels that have continued to disrupt Nigeria’s cashless payment ecosystem.
Under the new rules, all acquirers, processors and Payment Terminal Service Providers (PTSPs) are required to establish and maintain active connectivity with both licensed Payment Terminal Service Aggregators (PTSAs), NIBSS and UPSL.
PoS systems must also support automatic failover to ensure seamless switching during outages, a measure expected to significantly reduce transaction disruptions that have frustrated merchants and consumers nationwide.
As part of the framework, NIBSS and UPSL will carry out periodic system tests with financial institutions to validate redundancy and operational resilience, with the outcomes submitted to the CBN for regulatory oversight.
The two aggregators are also mandated to notify banks in real time of any system downtime or disruption and submit detailed incident reports to the CBN within 24 hours, disclosing causes and remedial actions.
The one-month compliance deadline, which expires around mid-January 2026, increases pressure on payment service providers operating within an ecosystem that processes millions of transactions daily amid Nigeria’s expanding digital finance drive.
Frequent PoS downtime has eroded public confidence in electronic payments, with earlier CBN interventions, including the August geo-tagging policy, yet to fully resolve the issue.
While industry executives have welcomed the latest directive as a long-term fix, some have raised concerns over integration costs and tight implementation timelines.
A payments analyst described the move as critical to stabilising the payment infrastructure, noting that dual connectivity could push transaction success rates above 95 per cent.
Fintech leaders also anticipate smoother e-commerce transactions and remittance flows, although smaller PTSPs have expressed worries about meeting the compliance deadline.