By Juliana Adama Vandy:
Strategic Communications Unit – MoICE
Dr. Ibrahim Steven, Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone, updated citizens on the Instant Payment Service of the National Switch at the weekly government press briefing on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, at the Miatta Conference Centre.
He informed that they started with card inter-operability to point-of-sale inter-operability and now the instant payment service.
According to him, seven banks have connected to the payment service along with two mobile network operators. He explained that the instant payment system allows for direct payments from one bank to another or between mobile networks.
“This system saves customers the hassle of writing cheques and waiting for maturity dates,” he said.
Dr Steven furthered that many countries are currently using this system, citing Nigeria in West African, among others. In the past three months, he went on, Sierra Leone has been live on the instant payment service system on a restricted basis, adding that commercial banks have opened their systems with
mobile networks to follow. “This will allow innovative transactions to enhance the layout of tech platforms operating in the country,”
Dr Stevens noted, maintaining that the new system supports bank-to-bank direct transfers and mobile network-to-bank direct transfers.
He encouraged citizens to register for the service through participating banks and mobile money operators, using their national identification cards and telephone numbers.
He announced that the Bank of Sierra Leone has set the 1st of April 2025 as the deadline for the full integration of all banks and mobile money operators in the country. He said the Bank of Sierra Leone remained committed to working on the system to address any challenges commercial banks may face during the integration process, and urged all banks and money operators to fully integrate into the system before the 1st of April 2025.