The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) expends not less than ₦150 million every month on electricity and backup generation to keep the country’s central electronic payment rails fully operational, with diesel fuel alone consuming approximately ₦100 million of that total.
The figures were disclosed by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NIBSS, Premier Oiwoh, whose remarks were delivered by Innocent Osagiede, Head of Operations and Finance/CFO Directorate at NIBSS, during the one-year anniversary event of Tango Brook Technologies in Lagos.
Addressing industry stakeholders, the management explained that maintaining continuous uptime is treated as an existential requirement rather than a discretionary operational overhead.
“Specifically, if I mention figures about my company, we spend not less than ₦150 million per month on power alone. Out of that ₦150 million, ₦100 million is on diesel alone,” Osagiede stated while presenting on behalf of Oiwoh. “For us, cost is not the matter, but you cannot be down.”
To prevent sudden shutdowns across its server network and core switching infrastructure, NIBSS operates a strict fuel-management regime. The organisation maintains a primary 22,000-litre diesel reservoir at its premises alongside a dedicated day tank positioned directly adjacent to its industrial generators.
Internal operational protocols require the day tank level to remain strictly above 5,000 litres at all times, with internal security staff tasked with monitoring fuel reserves around the clock and pumping diesel from the primary reservoir once that threshold is approached.
Highlighting the delicate margin between operational continuity and disruption, Osagiede recalled an instance where an officer mistakenly assumed a previous shift worker had already filled the day tank before stepping away. The generator subsequently shut down, taking roughly three minutes to resolve before systems were restored.
He noted that prolonged electrical interruptions risk forcing servers into sequential emergency shutdowns, an outcome that would immediately stall bank transfers, interbank settlements, and retail financial operations across the federation. Beyond mechanical stability, NIBSS also conducts rigorous quality checks on fuel batches to prevent substandard diesel from degrading power equipment.
The disclosure underlines the steep physical infrastructure expenses underpinning Nigeria’s digital economy, where mission-critical financial platforms must deploy heavy capital and continuous manual safeguards to insulate shared banking rails from public grid instability.
