Software Ecosystems and Platform Governance in Nigerian Digital Payment Infrastructure

Nigeria's digital payment infrastructure has evolved into a complex multi-sided platform ecosystem involving banks, fintechs, telcos, regulators, and millions of users, yet the software ecosystem dynamics and governance mechanisms shaping this infrastructure remain theoretically underdeveloped. This dissertation investigates software ecosystem formation, evolution, and platform governance in Nigerian digital payment infrastructure, developing original theory informed by platform economics, software ecosystem theory, and Nigerian financial services regulatory analysis. A longitudinal qualitative case study research design examines the Nigerian Instant Payment (NIP) ecosystem anchored at the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), the mCash mobile payment ecosystem, and two independent fintech platform ecosystems in Lagos over a six-year period. Data sources include 55 interviews with ecosystem participants across complementors, integrators, regulators, and platform operators; API evolution analysis tracking 380 API versions across three platforms; and regulatory document analysis of 12 years of CBN payment system circulars. The dissertation introduces the Regulatory-Shaped Ecosystem Evolution (RSEE) theory, positing that Nigerian payment platform ecosystems are distinctively shaped by the CBN's interventionist regulatory posture, which functions as a de facto platform governance actor separate from and often in tension with market-driven platform owners. RSEE explains ecosystem dynamics not accounted for by Jacobides, Cennamo, and Gawer's platform theory and provides a theoretically generalisable model for government-dominated digital platform ecosystems. Keywords: software ecosystem, platform governance, digital payments, Nigeria, NIBSS