Cheque Usage Drops As PoS Transactions Hit N13.67trn

Nigerians have continued to abandon cheque transactions as Point of Sale transactions rise to N13.67tn in three years, according to data obtained from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc portal.

The data showed that the aggregate PoS transactions between January 2019 and November 2021 was N13.67tn while total cheque transactions within the same period was N10.67tn.

In its ‘Instant Payments – 2020 Annual Statistics’, the NIBSS said, “The COVID-19 pandemic changed the e-payments landscape, accelerating the adoption of instant payments as more people transitioned to electronic channels for funds exchange in the wake of government imposed lockdowns.”

In 2019, the value of cheque transactions in the nation was N4.48tn while the value of PoS transactions totalled N3.21tn.

By 2020, the value of cheque transactions dropped to N3.27tn while the value of PoS transactions rose to N4.73tn.

Between January and November 2021, the value of cheque transactions dropped further to N2.92tn, while the value of PoS transactions increase again to N5.73tn.

Prior to 2019, cheque transactions were worth N5.04tn while PoS transactions were worth a mere N2.32tn in 2018.

Cheque transactions dropped from a total of 7,812,548 in 2019 to 4,925,306 in 2020, and 4,063,675 in the first 11 months of 2021.

PoS transactions increased from a total of 438.61 million transactions in 2019, to 655.75 million in 2020, and 883.29 million in the first 11 months of 2021.

According to NIBSS, the increase in PoS transactions is being driven by Lagos, Federal Capital Territory, Rivers, Oyo, and Delta states, with the states leading transaction volumes in 2019 and 2020.

In both years, Lagos accounted for more than 50 per cent of total transactions – 51.5 per cent in 2019 and 69.2 per cent in 2020.

From 2019, the total number of registered PoS terminals increased from 449,998 in January 2019 to 690,070 in December 2020. The total number of deployed PoS terminals increased from 223,098 to 459,285.

The Group Managing Director, Zenith Bank Plc, Mr Ebenezer Onyeagwu, recently disclosed that banks had been witnessing an uptake in electronic banking by customers since the onset of the COVID pandemic.