CBN Launches Domestic Card ‘AfriGo’ To Promote Financial Inclusion

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced the Nigerian National Domestic Card Scheme, known as AfriGo, to build a more reliable payment system and promote financial inclusion in the country.

The Central Bank of Nigeria's Governor, Godwin Emefiele, launched the card Thursday and announced that all card transaction fees would now be paid in Naira, except for foreign transactions.

"Ladies and gentlemen, at this time when foreign exchange challenges persist globally, it is important that I say that we have come up with this card to ensure that all online transactions will now effectively immediately begin to go on the Nigerian national domestic card system," he said, as reported by Punch.

According to him, the CBN and its partners will set a timetable beyond which the country's current card schemes will no longer be accepted for domestic transactions.

Emefiele also revealed that the CBN, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc, and Nigerian banks would collaborate on how to separate those transactions so that they would only levy fees or impose charges for transactions made abroad using Visa or MasterCard cards. "The national domestic card avails us the sovereignty of our data. Secondly, it comes at lower costs," he said, as per Techcabal.

The CBN governor claimed that although card payments were widely accepted in Nigeria throughout the years, many people were still left out. The primary barriers to financial inclusion in the country, according to Emefiele, are the high cost of card services, the necessity for foreign exchange for international card schemes, and the inability of current card products to match the regional demands of the Nigerian market.

He asserted that banks actively pushed the national domestic card system, which would be accessible to all Nigerians, and also took regional specificities into account to enhance penetration given the country's low card usage.

Aisha Ahmad, the deputy governor for financial system stability at the CBN and chair of the NIBSS board, in her remarks, said that with the introduction of Afrigopay, "a lot of opportunities are being created within the ecosystem, and there are more opportunities that will be brought back by this Afrigo card."

The domestic national card is anticipated to compete with the two major market participants, Visa and Mastercard.

Visa and Mastercard have controlled the card payment industry in Nigeria. Domestic cards are anticipated to serve the unbanked sector better and increase competition within the payment landscape while still being convenient, particularly for international purchases.