NIBSS Moves to Improve Payment System

• NIBSS Moves to Improve Payment System

The Nigeria Interbank Settlement System has said it is committed to the development of payment systems in the country.

In a statement, the Managing Director, NIBSS, Mr Ade Shonubi, said there was a need to respond to the yearnings of the industry, particularly to the fintechs and provide payment services that would ease banking service delivery.

For this reason, he said NIBSS would organise the maiden edition of Hackathon competition for software developers across the country, as part of its commitment towards improving payment service platforms with better value proposition in line with international best practices.

Shonubi gave the theme of the programme as ‘Biometrics, key to the future and inclusion,’ and described it as a social coding event that would bring computer programmers and other interested people together to collaborate intensively on software projects.

He added that NIBSS Hackathon would focus on authentication, identification and validation with fingerprints because of the global adoption of biometrics as a means of identification to achieve accurate identification and accountability, user-friendly systems, easy, time saving, convenience and versatility.

According to him, the objective of the exercise is to develop solutions that will identify and implement different fingerprint authentication and validation methods, payment innovation using fingerprint authentication and valuable collaboration with banks, fintechs.

The statement said the event would help to grow talents and that it was opened to software developers and other interested individuals for registration on September 17, closing September 21, 2018, with the pitch day fixed for October 6 and 7, 2018.

It added that prizes of N3m, N2m, and N1m would be given to the first, second and third winners, respectively.

It 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 to accelerate the growth of the Nigerian financial ecosystem, we are organising the first ever Hackathon for software developers in Nigeria.”

According to the statement, the programme is being managed by Africa’s leading information value chain consultants and project managers, DigitalJewels Nigeria Limited.