News

Nigeria moves ATM/debit cards to EMV, chip and PIN

January 11, 2009

The (Nigerian) Punch: Information technology platforms will continue to drive economic and sociopolitical activities around the world, and e-payments will remain a faction of the techno-driven set-ups that impact the marriage between technology and financial services. Security and reliability will continue to be at the center of banking conversations, with operators and regulators exploring more options, including the movement to chip and PIN at ATMs and POS systems throughout Nigeria. The move by the Central Bank of Nigeria to convert from traditional magnetic stripe to a smart card platform has been a welcomed development. But saying that Nigeria's payment industry has come a long way would be overzealous. To date, Nigerian banks have issued more 25 million cards, which are being used on more than 11,000 POS terminals, 7,000 ATMs, 200 Web locations and 50,000 mobile devices.

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