Unified Payments Services canvasses industry collaboration

Unified Payments Services Limited, which was recently licensed as Nigeria’s second Payment Terminal Service Aggregator by the Central Bank of Nigeria has said that it is coming into the space to collaborate and enable businesses.

This was disclosed by the Group Managing Director,/Chief Executive Officer of Unified Payments Services Limited, Dr Agada Apochi, during a media chat with journalists on Friday at its office in Lagos.

He said, “As a payment service terminal aggregator, our approach to the market is not that of competition, we see ourselves as enablers. Our PTSA platform is for everyone to collaborate, cohabit and grow payment services in Nigeria.

“We have areas where we compete and areas where we enable. Happily, several operators in Nigeria have been working with us and we have enabled them to be able to sell to their clients.”

Addressing safety concerns, Apochi said, “When transactions do not go through a centrally regulated platform, it becomes more difficult to follow those transactions, to have an audit trail.

“Being the oldest financial technology company in Nigeria, connected to all the global payment schemes, processing and switching transactions over the years, we have experience and have a robust risk management framework and the technology infrastructure that provides against such risks and attacks, so there are no additional risks by reason of becoming a payment service terminal aggregator.”

According to analysts, with the licensing UP as the second PTSA, the CBN is set to clamp down on financial crimes and other market misconduct by enforcing the existing requirement that all transactions from point-of-sale channels in Nigeria must go through a licensed payment terminal service aggregator.

With this move, all electronic transactions in Nigeria can be tracked.

They claimed that by awarding a second PTSA license, the apex bank had proactively responded to industry operators who had expressed serious concerns about channelling all transactions through a single aggregator, the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System Plc, which had been the case since it was issued the first PTSA in 2011

With the new policy direction, payment service providers would henceforth route all transactions through either of the two licenced companies NIBBS or Unified Payments.

NIBBS played a crucial role in the rise of digital payments, enabling instant interbank transfers, POS  transactions, and the growth of the fintech sector.

This is evident in the growth of electronic payments in the country. In 2021, the value of digital payments through the NIBSS was N278.38tn, up 70.90 per cent from N162.89tn in 2020. This grew to N395.47tn and surged to N611.06tn in 2023.

A PTSA is responsible for the certification and re-certification of all payment terminals and applications.