Musa Itopa Jimoh

Director, Payments System Policy Department

Central Bank of Nigeria

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Musa holds a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University and an MBA from Enugu State University of Technology, Nigeria. He also earned a Certificate in Public Leadership from Harvard Kennedy School, completed the Advanced Management Program at Lagos Business School, and a Fellow of The Fletcher School at Tufts University. These academic and executive programmes provided a strong foundation in technology, leadership, management, and policy.

He has extensive experience in banking and payment services, building expertise in electronic payments, banking operations, and fintech. His international professional development includes training in Payment Systems and Oversight at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Payment System Policy and Consumer Credit at George Mason University, and Project Management and Procurement at the Institute of Public-Private Partnership (IP3), Washington, D.C.

From December 2019 to November 2023, he served as Director, Payments System Management Department, where he chaired the Nigerian e-Fraud Forum (NeFF) and the Payments Initiatives Coordinating Committee (PICC). He is a member of the Nigerian Institute of Management and the Institute of Directors and represented the CBN on the Board of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

He played key roles in implementing the Regulatory Sandbox, Open Banking, Contactless Payments, the eNaira CBDC, and the Payments System Vision 2028.

From November 2023 to December 2024, he served as Director, Capacity Development Department, leading the Bank’s capacity-building strategy. He currently serve as Director, Payment System Policy Department, overseeing policies that promote innovation, stability, and financial inclusion in Nigeria’s payment system.

Speaking At

4:15–5:45pmMon 16 NovPublic-Private RoundtableRoundtable Room 4Open
Global Frameworks and Shared Best Practices in Payments Chains

Rethinking Instant Payment Infrastructure from the Ground Up

Public-Private RoundtableRoundtable Room 4Open
About this session

Most conversations about improving instant payment systems focus on iteration: faster rails, lower costs, broader interoperability. This roundtable asks a more foundational question: are there aspects of how these systems are typically architected that are worth revisiting at the root, rather than only refining at the edges?
Many systems today rely on a model where a payment is sent, and if something doesn’t match up, the two sides exchange after-the-fact messages to reconcile what happened. This reconciliation-heavy approach carries real ongoing cost, and emerging approaches, including early pilot evidence, suggest that dependence on it can be reduced through pre-validation, where payment data is checked and verified before a transaction is executed. Such design choices made early in a scheme’s architecture can shape how easily it extends to full inclusion later.
This session aims to bring together development institutions, instant payments players, central banks, and relevant voices to discuss whether the iterative path – where systems are made incrementally better over time – or the fundamental path – where systems are rebuilt from the ground up – is a more viable solution for national payments systems looking to embark on pre-validation.
The roundtable aims to produce a practical roadmap for countries looking to implement prevalidation across financial institutions. Where available, early pilot data will serve as evidence, discussed frankly under the Chatham House Rule.

Speakers

Musa Itopa Jimoh

Speaking At

Rethinking Instant Payment Infrastructure from the Ground Up