Moody’s says adoption of e-payments by Nigerians is credit positive for banks

Credit rating agency, Moody’s, has described the rapid growth in electronic payments in Nigeria as credit positive for lenders.

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Banking statistics released recently by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that a total of 711.29 million transactions valued at N40.48 trillion were recorded on electronic payment channels within the months of April to June representing the second quarter of the year.

The growth in electronic payments is at the expense of branch-based cheque and ATM transactions.

Peter Mushangwe, Banking analyst at Moody’s said for Nigerian lenders the increasing use of e-payments by customers is credit positive as it gives the banks a new channel for revenue generation and ability to cut costs.

“From a low base, the value of internet, mobile and point-of-sale transactions continue to grow substantially while cheque transaction fell 6.4percent in 2018,” he said.

Analysis of the figures shows that NIBSS Instant Payments ( NIP), an account-number based, online-real-time Inter-bank payment solution was the preferred funds’ transfer platform within the period as it recorded the highest volume transaction at 271.34 million valued at N25.18 trillion as compared with N24.16trn inq1 2019.

A breakdown shows that in the month of April, a total of 87.94 million transactions valued at N8.27 trillion were carried out using NIP. In May, a total of 95.98 million transactions valued at N9.03 trillion was carried out while in June, 87.42 million transactions valued at N7.86 trillion were carried out.

During the quarter under review, the volume of cheque transactions stood at 1.94million valued at N1.18trn compared to N1.152trn in Q1 2019.

Volume of transactions via the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) stood at 221.65 million valued at N1.69 trillion, while total volume in April stood at 75.04 million valued at N575.86 billion. For the month of May, a total of 75.43 million transactions were carried out valued at N580.86 billion and June had 71.18 million volume transactions valued at N542.43 billion.

Point- of-sale terminals also recorded huge volume of transactions at 103.93 million valued at N749.81 billion. Volume transaction in April via the POS stood at 33.36 million valued at N246.09 billion, the volume increased in May to 35.46 million valued at N257.73 billion, the volume, however, decreased marginally to 35.09 million valued at N254.99 billion.

The rapid mobile penetration has seen banks’ customers conduct their transactions using mobile payment applications. Within the second quarter, the volume of transaction stood at 63.30 million valued at N1.15 trillion. Volume of transaction via website platform stood at 27.59 million valued at N116.25 billion.

Volume of transactions through Remita, an electronic payment platform that helps individuals and organizations to easily receive and make payments across all banks, from anywhere and at any time stood at 11.04 million valued at N4.87 trillion.