New payment rails, richer transaction data and growing integration demands are expected to push banks and fintech companies towards a new generation of modular banking platforms.
By 2027, the technology debate in Nigerian banking is likely to move beyond mobile applications. Banks and fintech companies have spent much of the past decade improving the customer interface. Account opening has moved online, transfers have become faster and financial services are increasingly delivered through mobile channels. The next investment cycle will focus on the infrastructure behind those experiences.
That shift is already visible in Nigeria’s payments strategy. The Central Bank of Nigeria launched Payments System Vision 2028 in June 2026, setting out priorities around interoperability, security, inclusion, innovation and closer cooperation across the financial sector.
At the same time, the National Payment Stack developed by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System is introducing ISO 20022 messaging, richer payment data, improved transaction traceability and support for real-time settlement information. The platform is also designed for open banking connectivity, multi-currency transactions and cross-border interoperability.
These developments will place new demands on the systems operated by banks, payment companies and digital finance providers.
“By 2027, the market will be less concerned with whether an institution has a mobile application and more concerned with what sits behind it,” said Pavel Shumsky, chief marketing officer at banking technology provider Velmie. “The institutions that move fastest will be those that can connect new payment infrastructure, launch products without major redevelopment and maintain a consistent financial record across every channel and provider.”
The first generation of digital banking programmes often placed a new customer interface over an established core system. That approach allowed institutions to improve the customer experience without replacing critical infrastructure. It also created a growing layer of integrations, middleware and manual operating processes around systems that were not designed for real-time, API-driven financial services.
The model becomes harder to sustain as the institution adds new products and external providers. Introducing a new payment route often affects several parts of the operating environment, from customer channels and transaction posting to reconciliation and exception handling. Unless the platform is designed around shared services and consistent data, even a relatively narrow product change can become a wider technology programme.
Nigeria’s next technology cycle is therefore likely to favour platforms that separate customer journeys from the systems of record beneath them. Banks will be able to retain core infrastructure where it remains effective, while introducing a modern layer for product configuration, integrations and digital delivery.
This allows modernisation to proceed in stages rather than through a high-risk replacement of the entire banking estate.
“The assumption that every institution must choose between keeping its existing core and replacing it completely is outdated,” Shumsky said. “A modern architecture can preserve systems that remain reliable while moving product logic, integrations and customer services into a more adaptable platform. The important issue is establishing clear boundaries between those layers.”
Velmie’s banking suite follows this model. It combines a configurable banking capability layer with API middleware, operational tools and mobile and web applications. The platform can operate as the primary banking system or provide a modernisation layer over an existing core.
For Nigerian institutions, this architecture can be used to connect local partner banks, domestic payment infrastructure and compliance providers without tying the entire proposition to one external supplier.
The move towards ISO 20022 is often described as a payment messaging upgrade. Its broader significance lies in the quality of information that can accompany each transaction.
Older payment formats frequently provide limited context. Operations teams may receive a transaction value and basic reference while still having to determine its purpose, beneficiary or relationship to an invoice.
ISO 20022 supports more structured information, including payment purpose, customer references and identifiers that can improve automated processing. NIBSS also positions the National Payment Stack as supporting end-to-end traceability, real-time settlement visibility and improved fraud detection.
By 2027, banks will need internal platforms capable of retaining and using that information. Simply receiving richer data from the payment network will have limited value if the core system reduces it to a basic ledger entry or the back office cannot use it during reconciliation and investigations.
“Structured payment data gives institutions the opportunity to automate work that is still handled manually,” Pavel Shumsky said. “It can improve reconciliation, shorten investigations and give risk teams a clearer view of the transaction. Those gains depend on whether the banking platform can preserve the data and make it available throughout the operating process.”
Modern platforms will increasingly need to connect the original payment instruction with the ledger entry, settlement status and operational history. That record can support customer service, financial reporting and fraud investigation without requiring staff to assemble information from several systems.
Nigeria’s open banking framework gives financial institutions a formal structure for sharing data and services through APIs. The Central Bank’s operational guidelines address participation, customer consent, information security and the responsibilities of organisations within the ecosystem.
Its commercial value will depend on whether banks treat it as a regulatory obligation or use it to redesign how products and partnerships are delivered.
A narrow implementation may expose only the interfaces needed for compliance. A more strategic approach would place APIs at the centre of the bank’s architecture, allowing the same services to support digital channels, fintech partnerships and embedded finance models.
“Open banking will create value only when banks move beyond publishing APIs and redesign the operating model around them,” Shumsky said. “The real opportunity is to make banking capabilities easier to distribute while retaining clear control over customer consent, data ownership and service delivery.”
Banks taking this route will be able to work with fintech companies and specialist providers without building a separate connection for every initiative. Financial products could be delivered through marketplaces, business software and other third-party environments while the bank continues to control the regulated service underneath.
The model requires disciplined governance. Institutions need to know where information originated, which platform remains authoritative and how an incomplete or failed external request will be handled.
Demand is therefore likely to increase for orchestration technology positioned between the core banking system, customer channels and external providers. This layer can manage routing, data exchange and exceptions while giving the institution a consistent way to introduce new connections.
The Nigerian market has no shortage of banking software, payment providers or digital applications. The more difficult issue is making those components operate as one service. A modern platform will be expected to support local payment connections, changing banking partnerships and regulatory controls without requiring a major rebuild each time the operating model changes.
Technology selection will therefore depend increasingly on delivery capability. Institutions will need to examine who is responsible for the architecture, how integrations are tested and who manages the platform after launch.
Velmie positions its model around a dedicated technology team that remains involved through implementation and subsequent development. Its scope covers platform configuration, integration engineering, digital channels and production operations.
“The market is moving away from isolated software purchases,” Shumsky said. “Banks need technology partners that understand the full operating environment and remain accountable when a change affects several systems. The quality of the platform matters, but so does the ability to keep it working as the institution develops.”
Nigeria’s banking technology market is entering a period in which infrastructure decisions will have a direct effect on competitiveness. The National Payment Stack will provide more advanced payment capabilities and richer data. Open banking will increase the number of connections between institutions and external businesses. Artificial intelligence will place additional value on reliable operational information.
Against that background, the traditional model of a fixed core surrounded by separate digital projects will become increasingly restrictive. Banks and fintech companies are likely to favour modular platforms that allow them to modernise in stages, connect local infrastructure and retain control as providers and products change.
The leading institutions will not be defined simply by the number of services offered through their applications. Their advantage will come from an architecture that allows those services to be introduced quickly, operated reliably and extended without placing further strain on the systems beneath them.
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