Which payment licence does your fintech need?
The CBN licenses payment businesses by category, and picking the wrong one (or building a product that needs a category you do not hold) is a fast route to a regulatory problem. The core categories are Switching & Processing, Mobile Money Operator (MMO), Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) and Payment Terminal Service Provider (PTSP) — with a combined Payment Solution Services route for some. This guide explains what each permits and how to get licensed.
Honest note: RenewPapers is not the CBN. These licences are granted by the Central Bank after its assessment. What we do is map your product to the correct category, structure and document the application, and run the AIP-to-final process.
The categories, plainly
- Switching & Processing — routing and processing transactions across the ecosystem; the heaviest category (highest capital).
- Mobile Money Operator (MMO) — operating a mobile wallet / e-money scheme.
- PSSP — payment processing, gateways, aggregation and value-added services (not holding funds like a bank).
- PTSP — deploying and maintaining payment terminals (POS).
- Super-Agent / PSB — agent networks and payment service banks are separate, related regimes.
Your product decides your category — and you can need more than one. A gateway that also deploys POS, or a wallet that also switches, may need multiple approvals or a specific combined category. We map this before you build, so you are not under-licensed at launch.
What does your product do?
Need a payment licence?
Tell us what your product does. We will confirm the exact CBN category (or categories), structure the company, and run the application end to end.
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Getting CBN-licensed? Line these up
Handpicked next steps for this — we can handle any of them for you.
CBN licence (AIP to final)The master guide to getting CBN-licensed.
Fintech regulatory approvalMap your fintech to the right CBN approval.
Register a business (CAC)Register the company with CAC first.
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