Cheque Transactions Drop By 56% To N178bn In May
The value of cheque transactions fell sharply year-on-year (YoY) by 55.7 percent to N178 billion in May 2020 from N401.8 billion in the corresponding period of 2019.
Similarly, the volume of cheque transactions declined by 63 percent to 266,335 in May 2020 from 718,139 in May 2019.
The huge declines came at the backdrop of a significant rise in the number of bank accounts opened by Nigerians during the same period.
A data release by the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) Payment Channels revealed that Nigerians opened a total of 38 million bank accounts during the period under review, about 31 percent to 160 million in May 2020 from 122.1 million in May 2019.
Further breakdown showed that Mobile Interscheme transfer had the highest percentage of transactions in value and volume during the period.
The value of mobile transfer transactions in May 2020 rose by 390 percent to N230 billion from N46.9 billion in May 2019, while its volume rose by 428 percent to 9.5 million from 1.8 million in May 2019.
Further analysis revealed that the value of NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) transactions rose by 16 percent to N10.4 trillion in May 2020 from N9 trillion in May 2019, while its volume rose by 47 percent to 141.3 million from 96 million in the corresponding period of 2019.
The value of Point of Sale (PoS) transactions in May 2020 rose by 39 percent to N358.1 billion from N257.7 in May 2019, while its volume rose by 36 percent to 48.4 million from 35.5 million in May 2019.
Analysis of NIBSS Industry Statistics data showed that the number of savings account rose by 46 percent to 129.9 million in May 2020 from 89.6 million in May 2019.
However, the number of current account fell by 14 percent to 25.2 million in May 2020 from 29.2 million in May 2019.
Further analysis showed that in May 2020, the number of active bank accounts grew by 53 percent to 111.5 million from 72.9 million in May 2019.
The number of inactive bank accounts however declined marginally by 1.4 percent to 48.5 million in May 2020 from 49.2 million in May 2019.
