Roadmap for Social Protection and Humanitarian Payment Digitisation in Nigeria

The report outlines a strategy to move Nigeria's humanitarian and social protection payments from physical cash to an open-loop digital payment ecosystem. It identifies key barriers, including low recipient digital literacy, regulatory restrictions on mobile money operators, and a lack of integrated beneficiary registries. The roadmap proposes four main pillars: enhancing coordination between agencies via a shared dashboard and NIN integration, segmenting recipients by digital readiness, developing the digital ecosystem through community savings groups and merchant payment transitions, and conducting regulatory advocacy to address PSB licensing and USSD costs.

• Recipients of cash transfers in Nigeria strongly prefer physical cash due to its universal acceptance, the flexibility it provides for their specific needs, and a general lack of readiness for digital payments, which includes limited mobile phone ownership, low digital literacy, and poor network connectivity.
• Nigeria's digital payment ecosystem is hindered by regulatory barriers, specifically the Central Bank of Nigeria's (CBN) delay in issuing payment service bank (PSB) licenses to major operators like MTN and Airtel, and high USSD channel costs that are passed to end-users.
• There is a critical lack of coordination and data integration among the various state, federal, and humanitarian registries used to track recipients, leading to silos and potential duplications.
• The roadmap proposes using the National Identification Number (NIN) as a foundational ID to streamline beneficiary targeting and improve financial inclusion, noting that the current registration process is difficult for those in conflict or poverty-prone areas.
• To encourage digital uptake, the report suggests leveraging community savings groups as entry points, as recipients may see more value in a digital wallet if it provides access to interest-bearing savings accounts or lines of credit.
• The report recommends transitioning from closed-loop e-voucher systems to open-loop merchant payments, particularly in the BAY states, to reduce the reliance on cash-out agents and increase the utility of digital wallets for daily purchases.
• The current use of virtual accounts by financial service providers for social protection is insufficient for financial inclusion because these accounts are temporary and inaccessible to the recipients.

APA

FSD Africa (2021). Roadmap for Social Protection and Humanitarian Payment Digitisation in Nigeria. https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Nigeria-Digitisation-of-Cash-Transfers-ROADMAP.pdf

Chicago

FSD Africa. Roadmap for Social Protection and Humanitarian Payment Digitisation in Nigeria. 2021. https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Nigeria-Digitisation-of-Cash-Transfers-ROADMAP.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=FSD Africa |title=Roadmap for Social Protection and Humanitarian Payment Digitisation in Nigeria |date=March 2021 |url=https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Nigeria-Digitisation-of-Cash-Transfers-ROADMAP.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{fsdafrica2021roadmap, author = {{FSD Africa}}, title = {{Roadmap for Social Protection and Humanitarian Payment Digitisation in Nigeria}}, institution = {FSD Africa}, year = {2021}, month = mar, url = {https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Nigeria-Digitisation-of-Cash-Transfers-ROADMAP.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }