Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System – GC Powerlist
GC Powerlist Logo
Africa Teams 2016

Financials

Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System

| Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System

Download

Africa Teams 2016

legal500.com/gc-powerlist/

Recommended Team

Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System

About

Owned collectively by the Central Bank of Nigeria and all licenced banks operating within the country, the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) provides the infrastructure for the automated processing, settlement of payments and transfer of funds between banks and card payment companies in Nigeria. Its legal team comprises company secretary and general legal adviser Oladele Agboola and general counsel and assistant company secretary Oyetunde Edward Oloyede, who are supported by two staff in the corporate services division.

With the payments system still in its infancy in Nigeria and NIBSS having to operate within extremely tight budget constraints, the legal team has had to devise innovative ways of managing its obligations. The lawyers now participate in pre-engagement meetings with customers to help provide direction to commercial teams and quickly address any issues that may slow down the engagement process. This has contributed to a faster turnaround time for NIBSS’s on-boarding of new merchants by speeding up pre-integration due diligence checks.

The legal team has also reviewed and simplified contracts for each of the company’s products so they can be read by non-lawyers, helping customers to make a decision and execute the contract more quickly. A further strategy has been to reduce all work to a minimum standard checklist, where possible, so that a particular approach can serve as a prototype to be outsourced. Among the services the legal team has already outsourced are customer corporate searches, customer due diligence checks, background checks, and the drafting and review of contracts for a sizeable number of NIBSS’s products.

As a result of these initiatives over the past two years, the legal unit has completely automated 95% of its processes and now operates as an almost paperless environment. The team has also played a lead role in helping to develop and promote NIBSS’s new product lines, including the Biometric Verification Number, NIBSS Instant Payment, the Electronic Document Management Portal, and CentralPay.

Related Powerlists