2nd July, 2013
Heritage Bank Limited has been integrated into the Instant Pay Platform of the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS).
With this development, new and existing customers of the bank can make payments and transfer funds through point of Sale (PoS) terminals, ATMs across the country, and from any of the bank’s branches and electronic payment platforms.
A statement at the weekend cited a note from NIBSS to banks and electronic payment firms to have said: “Please be informed that Heritage bank has been migrated to the Nigeria Instant Payment (NIP) production environment. Kindly accept all upstream transactions from them.”
Commenting on this development, Managing Director/Chief Executive, Heritage Bank, Mr. Ifie Sekibo, said the integration reflected confidence in the robust information technology infrastructure and electronic payment platform of the bank.
“Most banks take quite a long time to integrate into the NIPS platform, but within a very short period of our existence, we have integrated into their system. Our entire payment platforms have been fully integrated. And we are functional, up and running. So for us it is a real ground breaking and record setting achievement, and it reflects confidence from an e-payment switch like NIBSS.
“Also it expands our business environment. We are now connected to other e-payment switches, banks, banking platforms. People can now use our internet banking platform to make instant payment for goods and services, make funds transfer to people in other banks, and vice versa. It is a seamless and full integration into the banking and e-payment platforms in the country,” he said.
He added that e-banking enhances inclusion of many people, adding that it allows those that had been excluded from banking activities to participate in the system and benefit from banking activities.
“With this development, we have become part of the nucleus to make that work. This means in a short period we are part of the nucleus of financial inclusion, which is been advocated by the Central Bank of Nigeria,” he added.