NIBSS Pledges to Enhance Banks’ Payment Services

Emmanuel Otaru

The Managing Director of Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), Mr. Ade Shonubi has pledged the organisation’s commitment to constantly enhance the payment systems through rendering improved payment service platforms with better value proposition that will comply with international best practice.

Shonubi made this commitment during a press briefing at their corporate office in Lagos, to herald the Hackathon 2018, with theme: “Biometrics, Key to the Future and Inclusion.”

He said, ‘in the bid to respond to the yearnings of the industry, particularly to the Fintechs and to provide payment services and initiatives intended to ease banking service delivery, promote collaborations while accelerating the growth of the Nigerian Financial Ecosystem, NIBSS will organize its first ever Hackathon for software developers in Nigeria.’

According to him, “a Hackathon is a social coding event that brings computer programmers and other interested people together to collaborate intensively on software projects. NIBSS Hackathon will focus on authentication, identification and validation with fingerprints. This is because of the global adoption of biometrics as means of identification due to: Accurate identification and accountability; Easy, timesaving and safe for use; User-friendly systems, scalable and secure; and Convenience and versatility.”

The objective of this first edition according to the Managing Director, will be to develop solutions that address, “Identify and implement different fingerprint authentication and validation methods; Payment innovation using fingerprint authentication; Valuable collaboration with stakeholders and partners like banks, Fintechs, among others.

This event which the Managing Director said will help to grow talents, is open to software developers and other interested individuals for registration, which portal opened September 17 and closes September 21, 2018, while the pitch day begins October 6 -7, 2018 by 9 a.m. He said prizes of N3million, N2million, and N1million will be given to the first, second and third winners respectively.

Hackathon 2018 event is hosted by NIBSS and managed by DigitalJewels Nigeria Limited , Africa’s leading information value chain consultants and project managers.