CBN plans real time gross settlement system

The Central Bank of Nigeria plans to deploy a new real time gross settlement for interbank transactions, the CBN Governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, has said.Sanusi said this at the public presentation of the book, The ICT Revolution in NigeriaClosing the Gaps, in Abuja on Thursday.The governor who was represented at the event by Deputy Director, Information Technology, Mrs. Mojisola Olajide, said information technology had impacted heavily on the nations banking sector, adding that a lot would still change in the next 10 years.He said, CBN has planned to deploy a new Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system that meets international standards.The system would improve on current inter-bank, third party and debit fund transfers. It will also attend to issues of E-payment Switching, Delivery Versus Payment for Securities Trade Settlement and Payments Versus Payment for Foreign Exchange Trade Settlement.The CBN boss said the growth in mobile telecommunications subscription in the country has opened the doors for broader participation in information technology to Nigerians.He said, This has opened the doors of information and technology to Nigerians. Today, over a million Nigerians are on Facebook and Twitter, as are most of Nigerias newspapers and bloggers.We have witnessed political campaigns being run on social media platforms, particularly Facebook, resulting in more youth interest and involvementparticularly during the 2011 general elections in Nigeria.E-business is also growing as more and more Nigerian-based businesses are developing an online presence for wider market reach and to serve as virtual showrooms and online stores.Nigerian ICT firms have also delved into software/web development and many new start-ups have been built around application development. The Nigeria Software Development Initiative (NSDI) was borne from this.He, however, regretted that despite the revolution in the telecommunications sector, there were still several un-served and underserved areas of the country, especially in rural communities.
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