diff --git a/models/api/finstitutions/payments/request.py b/models/api/finstitutions/payments/request.py
index a06fcbd..ada9bdb 100644
--- a/models/api/finstitutions/payments/request.py
+++ b/models/api/finstitutions/payments/request.py
@@ -178,15 +178,13 @@ class PGPaymentRequestData(BaseModel):
         examples = ["INR", "USD", "KES"]
     )
 
-    reference: str = Field(
+    reference: str | None = Field(
         description = "some reference against which the payment was made",
-        min_length = 3,
         frozen = True
     )
 
-    description: str = Field(
+    description: str | None = Field(
         description = "a short, human-readable description of the payment",
-        min_length = 3,
         frozen = True
     )