‘Detty December’ Overloads Nigeria’s Payment Systems, CBN Report Reveals

Festive surge exposes coordination gaps across POS, transfers and remittances

Nigeria’s digital payment infrastructure comes under significant strain every December, with service interruptions and downtime rising sharply during the festive period widely known as “Detty December,” the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed.

Findings from the CBN Fintech Report, based on surveys of fintech executives, stakeholder workshops and regulatory roundtables, show that although the country’s core payments system is considered broadly resilient, peak-season transaction volumes continue to stretch the system to its limits.

The report highlights that the pressure is most visible across Point of Sale (POS) terminals, interbank transfers, and diaspora remittances, where transaction spikes coincide with increased consumer spending, travel-related inflows, and year-end salary payments.

“The December holiday season, commonly known as ‘Detty December’, was referenced as a case study of the system’s performance under pressure,” the report stated.

Resilience Tested During Peak Periods

Stakeholders surveyed were evenly split in their assessment of the system’s strength. While half rated Nigeria’s payments infrastructure as “very resilient,” the other half described it as “generally resilient.”

Despite this optimism, the report identified inter-institutional coordination between regulators, banks, and Payment Service Providers (PSPs) as the most critical weakness during high-volume periods.

Several fintech firms reported noticeable increases in downtime, especially on weekends and public holidays in December, when digital payment reliance is at its peak.

The CBN noted that the convergence of seasonal spending, remittance inflows from Nigerians abroad, and salary disbursements creates a perfect storm that tests not just technical capacity but also the agility of coordination across the payments ecosystem.

The findings are expected to shape future regulatory and infrastructure improvements aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s rapidly expanding digital payments landscape.