NIBSS and Ceva Vie for Kenya’s Fast Payment System in High-Stakes Bid

Nigeria’s Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) and Kenyan payments software provider Ceva Limited are actively lobbying President William Ruto to secure a role in developing Kenya’s Fast Payment System (FPS) and national digital ID program. Their bid intensifies competition for what is shaping up to be one of Kenya’s most lucrative financial infrastructure projects.

Ceva Limited has requested a meeting with President Ruto to present NIBSS as its strategic partner in building the country’s new payment infrastructure.

The proposed meeting is expected to include top executives from both companies, including NIBSS CEO Premier Oiwoh, Yvonne Ige, its Head of Partnerships, and Ceva MD Yatin Mehta. Also expected to attend is David Kiprono, Director of Webmaster, the firm behind Kenya’s e-Citizen platform.

A Bid to Strengthen Africa’s Payment Infrastructure

NIBSS, owned by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and licensed banks, serves as Nigeria’s national switch and payment infrastructure provider. Meanwhile, Ceva, founded in 2010, operates in multiple markets, including India, Nigeria, Kenya, and Brazil, and claims to process transactions worth $40 billion annually.

In its pitch to the Kenyan government, Ceva emphasized NIBSS’s experience in ensuring seamless interoperability between financial institutions, including banks, Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOS), mobile money operators like M-Pesa, and fintech firms.

“Our robust infrastructure is developed in Africa, for Africa,” Ceva wrote in the letter. “AfriGo is NIBSS’ answer to Africa having its card processing, driving our economic independence and efficiency. India has done it with Rupay, China with UnionPay, UAE with Jaywan, and Brazil with PIX.”

Challenges and Local Resistance

Should NIBSS and Ceva secure the contract, they could face resistance from Kenya’s dominant mobile money players, including Safaricom and leading commercial banks. These stakeholders have been advocating for the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) to upgrade Pesalink—a system that currently handles $8.5 billion in transactions annually—rather than investing in an entirely new FPS.

According to estimates from Safaricom and the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA), developing a new FPS from scratch could cost up to $200 million and take as long as four years to complete. In contrast, they argue that enhancing Pesalink would be a more cost-effective and time-efficient solution.

While CBK has yet to make a final decision on whether to proceed with an FPS upgrade or a new system, the competition for the contract remains fierce, with both local and international firms lobbying for a stake in the project.

As Kenya moves forward with its digital payments transformation, the outcome of these negotiations will significantly impact the country’s financial ecosystem and the broader East African payments landscape.