Jonathan Nwokpor
In 2023, Nigeria’s cashless transactions reached N611.06 trillion.
On Wednesday, the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System made this revelation.
According to NIBSS, cashless payments increased by 54.55 per cent annually by the end of 2022, from N395.38 trillion to N611.06 trillion.
Over time, Nigerian banks have reportedly exposed NIP to their clients through various channels, including online banking, bank branches, kiosks, mobile apps, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, point-of-sale (POS) systems, ATMs, and so on.
Data analysis revealed that the total value of instant payments in 2023 was N600.36 trillion, and point-of-sale transactions were valued at N10.7 trillion, with 1.38 billion reliances on them. Additionally, electronic payment channels were used 11.05 billion times in 2023, up 75.96 per cent from 6.28 billion times in 2022.
The fact that the available statistics reached an all-time high suggests that Nigerians are becoming more receptive to cashless purchases.
The e-payment data indicates a consistent rise over the year, with December recording the most outstanding amount. December 2023 was a holiday month filled with a lot of expenditure, and Nigerians spent N71.9 trillion on electronic channels.
The NIBSS statistics indicated that in March 2023, when Nigerians were forced to deal through electronic channels due to cash scarcity, e-payment volume reached an all-time high of 1.1 billion. The figure for the month was lower than the one noted in December of the same year, though.
In the meantime, from 5.1 billion in 2022 to 9.7 billion in 2023, the amount of transactions handled by NIBSS for the year increased. This is a rise of 90% from the previous year.
Nigerians paid N38.9 trillion on electronic platforms in January 2023, according to a closer examination of the value of electronic transactions month over month. In February, the value of e-payments was recorded at N36.8 trillion.
Similarly, in March 2023, the scarcity of cash caused the value of electronic transactions to soar to N48.3 trillion.
The entire amount spent on electronic channels by April was N41.3 trillion; in May, the number of transactions was N45.9 trillion.
The value of NIP transactions in June 2023 was N45.3 trillion, a little less than what was recorded in May. E-payment transactions reached N47.4 trillion in July.
The value of NIP transactions increased to N50.9 trillion in August and N51 trillion in September, respectively.
The biggest transaction value of N71.9 trillion was reported in December, with values for October and November standing at N59 trillion and N63.6 trillion, respectively.
The Central Bank of Nigeria’s naira redesign strategy and withdrawal limits, which went into effect in December 2022, contributed to an increase in cashless transactions in the nation.
“Customers should be encouraged to use alternative channels (Internet banking, mobile banking apps, USSD, cards/POS, eNaira, etc.) to conduct their banking transactions,” CBN stated following the announcement of a transaction cap.
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