Data sourced from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) have shown that e-payment channels such as Point of Sale (POS) and mobile payments are beginning to overtake cheques as means of payments for transactions in Nigeria in the last two years.
Daily Trust’s analysis of the values and volumes of transactions carried out between 2016 and 2017 through cheques, POS, mobile payments, Automated Teller Machines (ATM), web, the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) and Nigeria Interbank Settlement System Instant Payment (NIP) show that that Nigerians are increasingly adopting electronic transfer as means of payment.
Findings show that within the two-year period, 7.56 billion volumes of transactions valued at N267.68 trillion occurred in Nigeria through cheques, POS, mobile payments, ATM, web, NEFT and NIP.
During the period under review, cheques recorded a total transaction of 34.25 million valued at N17.04 trillion, ATM recorded 1.98 billion volumes of transactions valued at N12.84 trillion, POS recorded 273.70 billion volumes of transaction valued at N2.93 trillion, web recorded 57.17 million volumes of transaction valued at N451 billion while mobile payments recorded 47.81 million volumes of transactions valued at N2.61 trillion.
Further analysis showed that NIP recorded 678.10 million volumes of transaction valued at N132.38 trillion while NEFT recorded 90.37 million volumes of transaction valued at N33.09 trillion within the same period.
Daily Trust observed that while cheque recorded a drop in the values and volumes of transactions within the period, those of other payment channels reviewed either skyrocketed or remained stable.
The volume and value of transactions recorded on cheques dropped from 11.72 million and N5.83 trillion respectively recorded in 2016 to 10.81 million and N5.38 trillion respectively by the end of last year. This signifies a payment system on decline largely due to the threat of electronic payment system.
While payments through cheques are on the decline, the volume and value of transactions recorded via the POS rose from 63.72 million and N760 billion respectively in 2016 to 146.27 million and N1.41 trillion respectively in 2017.
The volume of transactions recorded on ATM also rose from 590.24 million in 2016 to 800.55 million in 2017 despite the fact that the value remained stable at N4.28 trillion in both 2016 and the following year.
Analysis showed that the volume of transactions recorded via web doubled in one year from 14.09 million recorded in 2016 to 28.99 million in 2017 while the value skyrocketed from N133 billion recorded in 2016 to N185 billion in 2017.
The highest increases in volumes and values of transactions are more visible from statistics on mobile payments, NIP and NEFT.
In 2017, the volume of transactions recorded via NEFT increased to 30.86 million from 29.75 million recorded in 2016 while value of transactions remained stable for the two years at N11.03 trillion.
Similarly, in 2017, volume of transaction via NIP rose to 370.87 million from 153.62 recorded in 2016 while the value of transactions also shot up to N56.17 trillion from N38.11 trillion in 2016.
Mobile payment transaction volumes have remained fairly stable at about 47 million while the value rose from N756 billion in 2016 to N1.10 trillion.
