Guidelines and Requirements for POS Dual Connectivity, One Month Deadline

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has issued a crucial directive to all Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), Other Financial Institutions (OFIs), and payment service providers, mandating the immediate adoption of POS Dual Connectivity across all Point-of-Sale terminals nationwide. This aggressive regulatory measure, announced on Thursday, December 12, 2025, comes with a strict 30-day deadline for full compliance, threatening severe sanctions, including the decommissioning of non-compliant terminals. The move aims to drastically reduce the high rate of failed electronic payment transactions resulting from network instability.

The CBN’s new policy dictates that all POS terminals deployed must now be configured with dual SIM connectivity. This means every POS terminal must utilize SIM cards from two different telecommunication networks, such as MTN and Airtel, or Glo and 9Mobile, to ensure a failover mechanism. The core rationale is to eliminate the primary cause of transaction failures: reliance on a single, often unstable, network connection. When one network experiences downtime or slow service, the terminal is automatically designed to switch to the secondary network, ensuring successful transaction completion.

This directive is part of the CBN’s strategic effort to strengthen the National Payments System and improve the quality of service delivery within the digital financial ecosystem.

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Guidelines and Requirements for POS Dual Connectivity

The CBN has outlined specific guidelines and requirements for banks and operators to adhere to within the one-month compliance window:

• Mandatory Dual SIM Integration: Every deployed POS terminal must physically integrate two separate SIM cards from distinct Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).
• Automatic Failover Mechanism: The terminal software must be programmed to detect connectivity failure on the primary SIM and automatically switch to the secondary SIM without requiring manual intervention from the merchant or customer.
• Comprehensive Configuration: Banks and terminal owners are responsible for ensuring all relevant configuration settings are correctly applied across the entire fleet of POS machines to support simultaneous or swift alternating connectivity.
• Compliance Deadline: All banks, switches, and payment terminal service providers (PTSPs) must ensure 100% of their deployed terminals meet the dual connectivity standard by January 12, 2026.
• Sanctions for Non-Compliance: The CBN explicitly warned that any POS terminal found to be operating with a single network connection after the deadline will be subject to immediate regulatory sanctions, which could include being decommissioned from the payments system.

The banking sector is now under intense pressure to quickly reconfigure millions of terminals nationwide. The CBN views the successful implementation of POS Dual Connectivity as critical to boosting consumer confidence in digital payments and supporting the cashless policy drive.