Cross-Border Payments Backbone of the Global Financial System – Cardoso
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Yemi Cardoso, has said cross-border payments are fast becoming the backbone of the international monetary and financial system.
Cardoso stated this in Abuja on Thursday during his plenary address at the G-24 Technical Group Meetings themed “Mobilising Finance for Sustainable, Inclusive, and Job-rich Transformation.”
Delivering a speech titled “Digital Cross-Border Payments, Global Finance, and Economic Transformation Opportunities and Risks,” the CBN governor said inefficiencies in cross-border systems translate into higher remittance costs, expensive foreign exchange transactions, fragmented settlement processes and barriers to micro, small and medium enterprises participating in global trade.
He described improving cross-border payments as not merely a technical reform but a macroeconomic and development priority.
“The channels through which capital, remittances and trade flows move now form a critical part of global financial stability architecture.
“Today, cross-border payments remain too slow, too costly and too fragmented, especially for developing economies,” he said.
Cardoso noted that global remittance corridors still cost over six per cent on average, with settlement delays of several days and compliance burdens that exclude many MSMEs from global opportunities.
He said digital innovation presents a historic opportunity to address these inefficiencies through modern payments infrastructure, instant payment systems, interoperable digital platforms, distributed ledger technology and robust digital identity frameworks.
According to him, such systems can reduce transaction costs for remittances and trade, shorten settlement times, improve transparency and compliance, and expand access to households and MSMEs traditionally excluded from the formal financial system.
He added that interoperable digital systems could strengthen monetary policy transmission, deepen financial inclusion and reduce informality if supported by strong governance and resilience.
Cardoso cited global examples, including India’s Unified Payments Interface linking with Singapore and the UAE to reduce remittance costs and enable real-time settlement, as well as Brazil’s PIX system, which has been adopted by over 70 per cent of adults and is being integrated into cross-border pilots across Latin America.
He said Nigeria’s experience shows that such potential can be realised through deliberate and sustained policy action.
“At the CBN, we have systematically modernised our regulatory and supervisory frameworks to keep pace with the evolving digital financial landscape,” he said.
He listed reforms including strengthened oversight of switching and payment infrastructure providers, enhanced agent banking regulations to address Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism risks, and improved interoperability across payment channels.
Cardoso disclosed that the apex bank was concluding work on a new Payment System Vision 2028, developed in collaboration with industry stakeholders and built around five strategic priorities to boost innovation, strengthen system resilience and advance financial inclusion.
He said improving the cross-border payments environment remains central to the agenda, noting that Nigeria has recorded measurable progress in the area.
Also speaking, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, called for greater unity among countries of the Global South to address rising fragility in global growth.
Edun said the global economic environment is characterised by uncertainty, systemic vulnerabilities and increasing fragmentation, which threaten trade flows and debt sustainability.
He noted that economic confrontations such as tariffs, sanctions, investment restrictions and strategic decoupling could trigger global crises and disproportionately affect developing and emerging markets.
According to him, Africa accounts for 17 per cent of the world’s population but contributes only about three per cent of global trade and roughly 2.5 per cent of global output, warning that deeper fragmentation could worsen the imbalance.
Earlier, Director and Head of Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Group of the G-24, Iyabo Masha, said the global economy is experiencing measured resilience but constrained ambition.
She observed that emerging markets and developing economies face tightening policy space amid rising uncertainty, with inflation vulnerabilities, elevated debt-service burdens and high capital costs persisting despite some easing in global financial conditions.
Masha outlined key themes shaping the outlook, including a stable but divergent global economy, tightening policy space for developing countries, emerging near-term risks, the need for medium-term transformation policies and urgent reforms of global financial institutions.
She stressed that while supply-side disruptions have eased and inflation has moderated in some advanced economies, resilience should not be mistaken for robustness in a volatile global environment.
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