Customers Carry Out 3.11m E-transactions As Banks Reopen
Bank customers across the country carried out over three million online instant payments on Nigeria Interbank Settlement System Instant Pay platform as Lagos and other states’ residents eased the one-month long lockdown.
Live updates provided by the NIBSS stated that at 6.14pm on the Monday, NIP deals hit exactly 3,106,287.
The platform during the lockdown had not recorded up to three million payment deals.
This spike in electronic transactions could be linked to the large customer turnout at bank branches in the three cities on Monday as the banks reopened for normal services.
It was observed that the bank customers defied social distancing rules to make payments, withdrawals and deposit cash, among other transactions.
President Muhammadu Buhari, had announced a gradually easing of lockdown in Lagos, FCT and Ogun State starting from May 4.
Buhari had stated that the heavy economic cost of the lockdown was one of the reasons for the decision to ease the lockdown.
The Lagos State Governor, Babjide Sanwo-Olu, also instructed banks in the state to operate from 9am to 3pm.
“We understand the roles banks and financial institutions play in the economy, so we encourage them to reopen their branches observing the work hours of 9am to 3pm while also strictly observing social distancing, regular cleaning and sterilisation of the ATMs,” Sanwo-Olu said.
Analysis of the live electronic payment data indicated that a low failure rate of 0.54 per cent was recorded on the platform, with customers experiencing a total of 16,684 failed transactions and 3.09 million successful payments.
NIP has been adjudged the most preferred platform for electronic payment having grossed more transactions in monetary terms than the PoS and e-Bills Payment over the years.
Instant payments reached a peak at 5pm on Monday, recording a total volume of 31,579 at that time.
The statistics also showed that Point of Sales transactions carried out by merchants and retailers in the country were high at 1,535,240 as of 6.14pm on Monday.
The data indicated that transactions on PoS had a failure rate of 14.92 per cent as the volume of failed transactions on the terminals stood at 230,561 at the same time.
Data on the e-payment platform efficiency showed that invalid bank code, transfer limit exceeded and account name mismatch were some of the factors responsible for failed NIP though the numbers of unsuccessful payments were insignificant.
The report indicated that errors originating from customers, acquirer banks, processors and issuer bank accounted for most of the unsuccessful PoS transactions.
