The Central Bank of Nigeria has issued a fresh directive mandating all participants in the country’s payment ecosystem to complete migration to the ISO 20022 messaging standard and implement mandatory geo-tagging of payment terminals by October 31, 2025.
In a circular published on its website on Tuesday, the apex bank reminded Deposit Money Banks, Microfinance Banks, Mobile Money Operators, Switching and Processing Companies, Payment Terminal Service Providers, Payment Solution Service Providers, Super Agents, and other licensed operators that ISO 20022 is now the global benchmark for payments messaging.
The circular, signed by the Director of the Payments System Supervision Department, Rakiya Yusuf, and dated August 25, 2025, stated that the move aligns with SWIFT’s global migration timeline and is intended to standardise quality data across Nigeria’s financial system.
“All payment transaction messages exchanged domestically or internationally must be formatted in ISO 20022 in line with CBN and SWIFT specifications,” it noted, adding that institutions must also ensure accurate population of mandatory data elements, including payer and payee identifiers, merchant and agent identifiers, and transaction metadata.
