Nigeria’s Instant Payment Transactions Hit N80trn

Nigeria’s Instant Payment Transactions Hit N80trn
Nigeria’s Instant Payment Transactions Hit N80trn

The value of transactions done via the Nigeria Inter Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) instant payment rose in 2018 by 43 per cent over how much changed hands via the channel in 2017, showing acceptance of electronic payments continued to rise.

Last year, N80.4 trillion had changed hands through the NIP channel compared to N56.17 trillion that was transacted via the channel in 2017. Average daily transactions on the channel doubled from N1 million to N2 million in 2018.

While the total bank account rose by 17.9 per cent, the number of individual bank accounts rose by 18.5 per cent and active bank accounts rose by 12.1 per cent.

Total bank accounts rose from 100.2 million to 118.1 million as at the end of December 2018, while active bank accounts rose to 71.2 million from 63.5 million and individual accounts rose from 59 million to 69.9 million.

The level at which transactions done via Automated Teller Machines (ATM) was however not as high as Point of Sale (PoS) transactions. The number of ATMS in the country had risen to 18,615 by the end of last year from 17,449 as the volume of transactions rose to 875.5 million with an attached value of N6.5 trillion compared to 800.55 million volume with a value of N6.44 trillion recorded in 2017.

PoS transactions almost doubled as the volume stood at 285.9 million last year compared to 146.27 million as value rose to N2.3 trillion from N1.4 trillion. This may not be unconnected to the rise in the number of registered PoS.

The number of registered PoS rose to 258,443 from 182,806 while the number of connected PoS rose to 217,283 from 155,462. Usage of cheques by both corporate and individual bank customers continued to decline with 5.4 million corporate cheques valued at N3.3 trillion as against 5.8 million cheques valued at N3.5 trillion that was processed in 2017.

The number of individual cheques issued in 2018 dropped to 2.1 million with an attached value of N0.8 trillion as against 2.43 million cheques valued at N0.83 trillion processed in 2017.

Managing director and chief executive of NIBSS, Niyi Ajao while noting that the company which is holds data for the banking industry records up to one million new accounts being opened in Nigerian banks on a monthly basis, said majority of the new accounts are being opened by people who already have accounts.

He stated further that the more than 30 million Bank Verification Number (BVN) holders have continued to make more transactions as the volume of electronic transactions grow.

“When we look at the figures for adult population for EFINA report for 2016, 96.4 million and now 99.6 million that is about 3.3 per cent population growth of adult population .If you look at the number of financial included 56.4 million as at 2016 has grown to 63.6 million in 2018 that is a growth of 11 per cent.

“So the increase is way above the population growth and that means the efforts of all players have yielded fruits but we need to continue with the efforts because we still have a lot to conquer if we must achieve the 20 pe cent exclusion by 2020. We have seen NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) which we use to gauge the payment behaviour of Nigerians from 2016 up until this year we have seen volume double year on year, even though the inclusion rate is growing much slower. This year by our projection we will be doing one billion NIP in 2018. We did half of that in 2017.

“It is clear that what we are experiencing is that it is the few banked people that are doing all the transactions. Throughout the 2017, volume of transactions kept on growing, instant payment, POS, bulk payment, even during the recession when the value of transaction became smaller, we were having more and more volume being done.

“That again points out that we are winning the war gradually against cash. More people that would have done cash are now doing ePayment. However, the few banked are the ones doing majority of the transactions.

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