E-Payments Hit N10.89trn In January
Nigerian banks facilitated electronic payments valued at N10.89tn in January, a 29 per cent increase in transactions as against N8.41tn recorded in January 2019.
This is as the volume of electronic payments rose to 160.18 million, recording 58 per cent increase from the 2019 figure, which was 101.38 million, latest statistics obtained from the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement Scheme have shown.
The overall electronic payments figure is an aggregate of transactions carried out on Point of Sale, terminals, mobile inter-bank transfers, NIBSS’ Instant Payments, electronic bill payment and Central Pay across the country.
According to the statistics, the value of Point of Sale transactions stood at N313.427bn in January, recording a 41 per cent increase compared with N222.921bn recorded in the corresponding period in 2019.
Also, the volume of payments carried out via the PoS terminals rose to 41.305 million in January 2020, representing 47 per cent increase as against 28.162 million in the same period in 2019.
The NIBSS data indicated that mobile inter-bank transfers amounted to N133.215bn in January 2020, recording a 397 per cent growth from N26.828bn in January 2019.
The volume of mobile inter-bank transfers also climbed by 914 per cent to 7.352 million in January 2020, from 0.723 million in the corresponding period of 2019.
For the NIP payments, Nigerian banks facilitated deals valued at N10.3tn in January this year, representing 27 per cent growth from N8.11tn in the corresponding period of 2019.
The volume of the NIP deals also hit 111.35 million in January as against 72.29 million in January 2019.
According to the NIBSS, electronic bill payments worth N92.76bn were carried out by banks in January, representing 86 per cent growth from N49.76bn in the same period in 2019.
The volume of electronic bills, according to the data, however indicated a decline of transaction as 122,685 bills were paid in January as against 134,656 in January 2019, representing nine per cent reduction in volume.
Central Pay, an application that allows customers to make payment to e-commerce businesses, recorded transactions worth N471.927m in January.
Analysis of the NIBSS data indicated that this was 20 per cent reduction in payments made by customers in January 2019, which was N591.35m.
The volume of central pay deals also declined by 23 per cent from 67,718 in January 2019 to 52,241 in January 2020.
A financial technology expert, Mrs Nkemdilim Begho, recently at an event in Lagos, said that digital literacy to ensure financial technology adoption, especially at the bottom of the pyramid, should be intensified.
Begho, who is the chief executive officer, Future Software Resources Limited, noted that super agents that had been deployed across the country were increasing Nigerian’s access to financial services.
Also, the Head of Innovation, Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access, Dayo Odulate, on the other hand, spoke on the need to drive financial inclusion through financial literacy.
She identified communication as an important tool that financial stakeholders could leverage to deepen financial inclusion, specifically for the people in rural areas as many of them were falling back into informal financial services.
