Nationwide Transaction Delays Hit Nigerian Banks, Fintechs Due to NIBSS Outage

The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) is currently experiencing a significant downtime, resulting in widespread delays and failures in electronic transactions across the country.

Numerous financial technology firms (fintechs) have alerted their customers to the ongoing disruptions. Notices seen on Wednesday indicate that the delays are affecting a broad spectrum of financial services.

NIBSS’s instant payment platform, a real-time electronic funds transfer (EFT) system, enables financial institutions to provide online real-time funds transfer services. However, the current downtime is preventing these transactions from being processed promptly.

Customers are facing difficulties with everyday transactions, such as paying for electricity bills. Eversend, a fintech firm, informed its customers that delays in naira transactions would persist for some time. “NIBSS is experiencing some delays in processing Naira transactions, this may affect your NGN top-ups and payouts in the app,” the message from Eversend read.

Kuda Bank also communicated to its users about the issue. “NIBSS, the settlement partner for all banks, is having intermittent issues completing transfers at the moment so money sent to your Kuda account might be delayed and transfers to other banks may not be possible,” the bank stated. They reassured customers that internal transfers and those to PalmPay accounts were still functioning normally and promised updates on their status page.

Other financial institutions are similarly affected. A customer of Guaranteed Trust Bank (GTB) reported that a transfer made at 2 PM had not yet been received by the recipient. Another customer from the United Bank for Africa (UBA) also noted difficulties in completing transfers.

The disruption is impacting a wide array of financial services, leaving customers and businesses alike struggling with the fallout. Fintech firms and banks are working to address the issues and are keeping customers informed as the situation develops.