Introduction

On December 9, 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued a circular, recategorizing Payments System licensing in Nigeria into four major categories: Switching and Processing; Mobile Money Operations; Payment Solution Services; and Regulatory Sandbox. There was, however, no unified document containing the requirements for each of these licensing categories. This made gathering information on the licenses cumbersome for potential license applicants. To resolve this issue, the CBN recently released a compendium containing all the requirements for Payment System licenses.

We have provided in this article, a snapshot of the CBN requirements and gone a step further by setting out the activities permissible under each licensing category.

  NAME OF LICENSE ACTIVITIES THE LICENSE PERMIT LICENSING REQUIREMENT FEE AND CAPITAL REQUIREMENT
         
1 Switching and Processing Licence

 

 Switching; card processing; transaction clearing; settlement agents; and all activities permitted for Payment Solution Services (in 3 below). · Corporate documents;

· Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) for 3 years (if applicable) and Taxpayers Identification Number (TIN) of the company;

· Details of ownership and holding company structure;

· Company details and profile;

· Bank Verification Number (BVN), Curriculum Vitae (CV) and means of identification (ID) for the directors and top management (including one independent non-executive director, chairman and managing director);

· Business plan;

· Requisite policies and framework;

· Signed agreements with sub-agents, financial institutions and business parties; and

· Evidence of payment card security certification and other relevant payment terminal certification.

 ·    Application fee of N100,000

·    Payment of the refundable sum of N2 billion in escrow to CBN

·    Licensing fee of N1 million to be paid before the issuance of the final licence.
2 Mobile Money Operator Licence

 

 E-money issuing; mobile wallet creation and management; pool account management;

and all activities permitted for Super-Agent (in 6 below)

 · Corporate documents;

· TCC for three years (if applicable) and TIN of the company;

· Details of ownership and holding company structure (if applicable);

· Company details and profile;

· BVN, CV and means of ID of the directors and top management (including one independent non-executive director, chairman and managing director);

· Business plan;

· Requisite policies and framework;

· Project deployment time; and

· Signed agreements with its partners.

 ·  Application fee of N100,000

·  Payment of the refundable sum of N2 billion in escrow to CBN

·  Licensing fee of N1,000,000 to be paid before the issuance of the final licence.
3 Payment Solution Services (PSS)

 

 It includes all the activities permitted for Payment Solution Service Providers (PSSP) (in 5 below); Payment Terminal Service Providers (PTSP) (in 4 below); and Super Agents (in 6 below).

 

Companies seeking to obtain the PSS license will have to select any one or combination of the following licenses: PSSP; PTSP; and Super-Agent.

 · Corporate documents;

· TCC for three years (if applicable) and TIN of the company;

· Details of ownership and holding company structure (if applicable);

· Company details and profile;

· BVN, CV and means of ID of the directors and top management (including one independent non-executive director, chairman and managing director);

· Requisite policies and framework;

· Signed agreements with its sub-agents, financial institutions, and partners;

· Minimum of 50 agents;

· Evidence of payment card security certification and other relevant payment terminal certification; and

· Project deployment methodology.

 ·   Application fee of N100,000.

·   Payment of the refundable sum of up to 250 million (depending on which of the licenses the company wishes to obtain) in escrow to the CBN.

·   Licensing fee of N1,000,000 to be paid before the issuance of the final licence.
4 Payment Terminal Service Provider (PTSP) Licence

 

 POS Terminal deployment and services and POS terminal ownership. · Corporate documents;

· Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) of three years (if applicable) and TIN of the company;

· Details of ownership and holding company structure (if applicable);

· Company details, profile and business plan;

· BVN, CV and means of ID of the directors and top management (including one independent non-executive director, chairman and managing director);

· Requisite policies and framework; and

· Project deployment methodology.

 ·   Application fee of N100,000

· Payment of the refundable sum of N100 million in escrow to the CBN.

· Licensing fee of N1,000,000 to be paid before the issuance of the final licence.
5 Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) Licence

 

 Payment processing gateway; payment solution development, merchant service aggregation and collection · Corporate documents;

· Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) of three years (if applicable) and TIN of the company;

· Details of ownership and holding company structure (if applicable);

· Company details, profile and business plan;

· BVN, CV and means of ID of directors and top management (including one non-executive director, chairman, managing director);

· Signed agreements with its partners;

· Requisite policies and framework; and

· Evidence of payment card security certification and other relevant payment terminal certification.

 ·  Non-refundable application fee of N100,000.

·  Payment of the refundable sum of N100 million in escrow to the CBN.

·  Licensing fee of N1 million to be paid before the issuance of the final licence.
6 Super-Agent Licence Conducting certain banking activities such as cash deposit and withdrawal, bill payments, local fund transfer, balance enquiry etc. · Corporate documents;

· TCC for three years (if applicable) and TIN of the company;

· Details of ownership and holding company structure (if applicable);

· Company details, organogram, profile and business plan;

· BVN, CV and means of ID of the directors and top management (including one independent non-executive director, chairman and managing director);

· Minimum of 50 agents;

· Reference letter from a financial institution and signed agreement with the sub-agents, financial institution, and partners;

· Must have existed for over 12 months;

· Requisite policies and framework; and

· Payment Terminal Service Aggregator of Payment Terminal Application Certification.

 ·  Non-refundable application fee of N100,000.

·  Payment of the refundable sum of N50 million in escrow to the CBN.

·  Licensing fee of N1 million to be paid before the issuance of the final licence.
7 Regulatory Sand Box As may be determined in the Sandbox.

 

The regulatory Sandbox is aimed at stimulating innovation and deepening financial inclusion. To this end, the CBN will review the products during the implementation.

 ·  Corporate documents including shareholding structure;

·  Company details and profile;

·  Project plan, business proposal and outline of the strategy of the sandbox trial;

·  Evidence of patent rights (if applicable);

·  CV of directors and top management; and

·  Requisite policies and framework.

 Not applicable

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.