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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) communicated in a circular dated 15^th October, 2018 proposing a new licensing regime for all categories of payment service providers and FinTech companies. This was introduced for the purpose of promoting financial inclusion and enhances access to financial services for low-income earners through leveraging on technology.

Importantly, the CBN licencing regime emphasized on the aspect of the FinTech relating to payment service providers (PSP).

The Following are the categories of PSP:

1. PSP SUPER LICENSE
2. PSP STANDARD LICENSE
3. PSP BASIC LICENSE

PSP SUPER LICENCE

The licence types under this category are as follows:

1. Switching: The permissible activities under this licence type are; switching, processing, transaction clearing and settlement agents’ services.
2. Payment Service Solution Provider (PSSP): These are companies that make up the underlying e-payment infrastructures in Nigeria. The permissible activities under this licence type are; payment processing gateway and portals, payment solution/application development, merchant service aggregation.
3. Payment Terminal Service Provider (PTSP) such as electronic payment systems. The permissible activities under this licence type are POS terminal deployment and services, POS Terminal ownership, PTAD, Merchant/agent training and supports.
4. Non-Bank Merchant Acquiring super agency: the permissible activities are agent recruitment and management services.

The circular provides for the issuance of minimum shareholder fund for the PSP Super License category as N5, 000,000,000.00 (Five Billion Naira).

The application fee for this category is N2, 000,000 (Two Million Naira) while the renewal fee is N1, 000,000 (One Million Naira). The licence is valid for three (3) years.

PSP STANDARD LICENCE

The licence types under this category are as follows:

1. Mobile Money Operators (MMO):  the permissible activities under this licence type are; E-Money issuers, agent recruitment and management, wallet creation and management, pool account management.
2. Super Agency: the permissible activities are agent recruitment and management services.
3. Non- banking Merchant Acquiring: the permissible activities under this licence type are merchant acquiring and settlements service, settlement agent’s services.

The circular provides for the issuance of minimum shareholder fund for the PSP Standard Licence category as N3, 000,000,000.00 (Three Billion Naira).

The application fee for this category is N1, 000,000 (One Million Naira) while the renewal fee is N500, 000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira). The licence under this category is valid for three (3) years.

PSP BASIC LICENCE

The licence types under this category are as follows:

1. Super Agency (SA): the permissible activities under this licence type are agent recruitment and management. The minimum shareholder funds for this activity type is N50,000,000 (Fifty Million Naira).
2. Payment Service Solution Providers (PSSP): the permissible activities include payment processing getaway and portals, payment solution/application development and merchant service aggregation. The minimum shareholder fund for this type of license is N100, 000,000 (One Hundred Million Naira).
3. Payment Terminal Service Providers(PTSP): the permissible activities under this licence type are POS terminal deployment and services, POS terminal ownership, PTAD, merchant/agent training and supports. The minimum shareholder fund for this activity type is N100, 000,000 (One Hundred Million Naira).

This provides for the issuance of minimum shareholder fund for the Basic license PSP category at N50,000,000.00 (Fifty Million Naira) for Super agency and N100,000,000.00 (Hundred Million Naira) for both PSSP and PTSP. The application fee for this category is N100, 000 (One Hundred Thousand Naira) while the renewal fee is N50, 000 (Fifty Thousand Naira). This licence category of payment service providers is valid for two (2) years.