The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday released regulation for electronic payments and collections for public and private sectors in the country.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the regulation is a revision of the Guidelines on Electronic Payment of Salaries, Pensions, Suppliers and Taxes in Nigeria (2014).
The CBN, in the regulation, introduced a penalty of N2 million for Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) on third party e-payment solution not approved by it on every repeated occurrence.
It also introduced penalty of N1million for Other Financial Institutions (OFIs) on third party e-payment solution not endorsed by the apex bank.
The CBN also introduced other fines for other forms of infractions.
The apex bank said in the regulation on its website that it was intended to guide the end-to-end electronic payment of salaries, pensions and other remittances, suppliers and revenue collections in Nigeria.
“The objective of the regulation is to fully align with the core objectives of the National Payments System Vision 2020.
“It is to ensure the availability of safe, effective and efficient mechanisms for conveniently making and receiving all types of payments from any location and at any time through multiple electronic channels.
Also, the interbank segment of the foreign exchange market received another boost of $210 million from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) following sales concluded on Tuesday.
Figures obtained from the CBN indicated that authorized dealers in the wholesale segment of the market were offered the sum of $100million, while the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segment received the sum of $55 million.
The sum of $55 million was allocated to customers requiring foreign exchange for invisibles such as tuition fees, medical payments and Basic Travel Allowance (BTA), among others.
Confirming the figures, the Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, reaffirmed the Banks commitment towards ensuring stability in foreign exchange market.
Last intervention on Friday, the Bank injected the sum of $321.11million and CNY33.3million into the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) segment.
Meanwhile, the Naira on Tuesday, exchanged at an average of N357/$1 in the BDC segment of the market.
