02Your obligation here

In Nigeria, payments and money-services activity answers to the Central Bank, with financial-crime supervision running through two further bodies. The obligation behind the licence is consistent in shape. The current framework requires:

a named compliance officer
a written AML/CFT programme
a documented risk assessment
risk-based customer due diligence
ongoing sanctions and PEP screening
transaction monitoring
suspicious-transaction reporting to the NFIU

Licensing & prudential

CBN The Central Bank of Nigeria licenses and supervises payment service providers and money-services operators. Supervised-institutions directory: cbn.gov.ng/Supervision/fi.asp

AML/CFT registration

SCUML The Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering registers and supervises the AML side for the relevant operators. Site: scuml.efcc.gov.ng

Financial-intelligence reporting

NFIU The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit receives suspicious-transaction and threshold reporting. Site: nfiu.gov.ng

Any specific CBN requirement, licence-category or capital threshold, SCUML registration timeline or reporting deadline is confirmed against the CBN or SCUML source before it is stated. It stays generic if unconfirmed.

03What we build in Nigeria payments

01Licensing & new-regime buildThe AML/CFT programme the CBN expects behind a payments or MSB authorisation: enterprise risk assessment, policies and procedures, the compliance officer function, agent and channel controls, SCUML registration, the file that survives review.Detail → 02RemediationAfter a CBN finding, a deficiency notice or a failed audit: gap analysis against the applicable framework, a fix that closes the finding, and the evidence trail to prove closure at re-inspection.Detail → 03Outsourced & bridge MLRO + FIUA senior compliance officer or bridge MLRO while you recruit, plus a managed financial-intelligence function: alert triage, investigations, and suspicious-transaction reporting to the NFIU.Detail → 04Independent AML auditThe independent review of your payments programme that the CBN and your board expect, tested against the current framework, with findings you can act on.Detail → 05Sanctions & integrity DDSanctions and screening controls, correspondent and counterparty due diligence, and integrity checks calibrated to a payments operator's cross-border exposure.Detail →

04Why it is urgent now

Standing exposure

Payments and money services in Nigeria are fully supervised today, not at some future deadline:

The CBN licenses the activity.
SCUML registers the AML side.
The NFIU receives the reports.

An operator without a defensible AML/CFT programme is exposed at the next examination. Cross-border money movement puts a payments operator squarely in the sanctions-screening line of sight, which is where thin programmes fail first.

Tell us what you are trying to license, fix or run in Nigeria payments.

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