Association of Corporate Communication and Marketing Professionals in Banks (ACAMB) has urged banks to deepen the adoption of digital payment channels, including the Nigeria Quick Response (NQR) code, to accelerate cashless transactions.
The association made the call during a courtesy visit to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) Plc in Lagos.
A statement by ACAMB said the meeting brought together the leadership of both organisations to discuss ways of strengthening Nigeria’s digital payment ecosystem.
It said discussions focused on the need to reinforce the country’s payment infrastructure and ensure coordinated and accurate communication whenever service disruptions occur.
During the visit, ACAMB President, Mr Jide Sipe, called for wider adoption of the NQR code to promote faster and more seamless digital payments.
Sipe said the association was seeking a common platform where banks could collaborate, exchange ideas and ensure the timely dissemination of accurate information on developments and innovations within the banking industry.
“We want to make sure there is a space where banks engage, share ideas and ask relevant questions about how to grow the industry as well as manage its challenges,” he said.
According to him, ACAMB has continued to engage key stakeholders across the financial sector, including the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), to identify areas for stronger collaboration and industry engagement.
He said recent system downtime highlighted the importance of coordinated communication, stressing that the association was committed to ensuring that accurate information comes from industry stakeholders rather than external sources.
Sipe also proposed a stakeholders’ conference to facilitate direct engagement between heads of corporate communications in banks and NIBSS.
Responding, the Managing Director of NIBSS, Mr Premier Oiwoh, said reliable digital payment infrastructure remained critical to financial inclusion and economic growth.
He said seamless and efficient payment systems had always been central to the organisation’s operations.
“That is why one of the key ingredients that shape our philosophy at NIBSS is our commitment to financial inclusion.
“Seamless and effective payment has always been at the core of what we do, and one key path to achieving this is ensuring a payment system that works.
“This will, in turn, optimise revenue security, improve customer experience and reduce time-to-market, thereby facilitating economic growth,” he said.
Oiwoh said NIBSS had, since 2019, prioritised fairness, resilience and trust in digital payments by monitoring transaction speed to anticipate system failures and strengthen the payment ecosystem.
He described the NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) platform as Nigeria’s pioneering account-based instant transfer system and said it laid the foundation for the National Payment Stack (NPS).
According to him, the NPS enables secure real-time payments, supports cross-border transactions and promotes financial inclusion across Nigeria and Africa.
He added that the platform had significantly reduced transaction processing time while improving efficiency for banks and customers.
Oiwoh also urged banks to expand the adoption of the NQR code, describing it as a secure and cost-effective payment solution that simplifies mobile transactions.
He said the solution allows customers to make payments by scanning a merchant’s QR code with their banking application, eliminating the need for payment cards.
According to him, merchants incur minimal deployment costs as they only need to print or display the QR code, while both buyers and sellers receive instant transaction alerts for real-time payment confirmation.
Oiwoh said United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc was among the early adopters, having onboarded its Point of Sale (PoS) merchants onto the NQR platform to enable customers make payments through QR code scanning.
