Market News

By Chinwendu Obienyi

Bank transfers within and outside Nigeria were disrupted on Wednesday following intermittent downtime on the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), the central infrastructure responsible for processing electronic payments between financial institutions.

The technical issues triggered delays in naira-denominated transactions nationwide, impacting customers of commercial banks, fintech platforms, and digital lenders.

Daily Sun gathered that the disruption, which began earlier in the day, resulted in delayed crediting of bank transfers, slowed withdrawals to local accounts, and intermittent failures in payment confirmations.

While transactions are still being initiated, many took significantly longer than usual to settle, creating uncertainty for individuals and businesses reliant on real-time payments.

NIBSS serves as the backbone of Nigeria’s interbank payment ecosystem, routing and settling transactions between banks and financial service providers. Any instability in its systems has a direct ripple effect across the entire financial sector, particularly in an economy where digital banking and mobile transfers have become the dominant mode of everyday payments.

Several financial technology companies have acknowledged the disruption. LemFi, an international service provider, particularly for immigrant services, issued a customer notice confirming that the downtime is affecting naira transfers across Nigerian banks more broadly, not just its own platform.

“This is affecting Nigerian bank transfers more widely, not just LemFi. Because of this, some naira transactions may take longer than usual, including: transfers to Nigerian bank accounts naira withdrawals to your bank account.

If you recently made a naira transaction and it has not been completed yet, your money is safe. We are monitoring the situation closely and will continue processing affected transactions as soon as service is restored”, the service provider said.

Similarly, Carbon confirmed that it had received communication indicating intermittent failures within the NIBSS network. The company warned that processing times for transfers could be extended until full restoration of services, noting that updates would be provided as the situation evolves.

Some other platforms advised customers not to submit multiple complaints, stating that existing tickets remain active and will be resolved once normal processing resumes.

Although the scale of the technical issue has not been fully disclosed, its impact underscores the systemic importance of NIBSS within Nigeria’s financial infrastructure. The organization facilitates clearing and settlement for interbank transfers, including transactions initiated through mobile banking apps, USSD services, and fintech platforms that rely on bank integration rails.

For businesses, the delays have created operational bottlenecks, particularly for merchants dependent on instant payments to maintain cash flow. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which increasingly rely on digital transfers instead of cash, have been among the most affected.

Nigeria’s rapid shift toward digital payments in recent years has significantly increased transaction volumes on the NIBSS network, amplifying the effects of any downtime.

While such disruptions are typically short-lived, they highlight the need for continued investment in redundancy and system resilience within critical financial infrastructure.

As at the time of writing, there has been no official timeline provided for full restoration of services with financial institutions bent on monitoring the situation and process transactions as system stability improves.