E-payment volume grows to N35trn in 2 years

… as CBN seeks stakeholders collaboration

The total payment volume grew to N35.1 trillion in 2014 from N18.1 trillion in 2012, representing 93.9 percent increase in two years.

Simi- larly, Point of Sale (PoS) increased by 550 percent from N48 billion in 2012 to N312 billion in 2014, while instant payment rose to N19.9 trillion from N3.8 trillion.

Ifie Sekibo, managing director/CEO, Heritage Bank, gave the breakdown while speaking on ‘mak- ing a chat on innovation in e-payment,’ at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Car- dExpo Africa forum held in Lagos.

There are over 105 mil- lion mobile phones users in Nigeria, while over 60 million Nigerians do not have bank account but have phones, he said.

Meanwhile, over 92 percent of banking trans- actions can be done with- out human interventions.

“Convenient banking is in the norm and differentia- tion can only come via in- novation,” he said.

Declaring the CardEx- po event open, Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, assured stakeholders of regulations that were sup- portive and not inhibitive of operators that seize the moment to investing along the e-payment vision 2020.

Represented by Dipo Fatokun, director, banking and payments system de- partment, CBN, Emefiele said the CBN will promote policies that will enhance competition, collaboration corporation and encourage new entrants into payment ecosystem in Nigeria.

“It is our hope at the CBN to see stakeholders innovate, and we are poise to give required support to encourage industry players to penetrate further into the outlined sectors of the economy,” he said.

According to him, the development of the pay- ment system as envisioned in the payment vision 2020 document will be along its specific verticals, which include smart city, agricul- ture, transportation, edu- cation, bills payment, gov- ernment flows, hotels and entertainment, and these are anchored on the evolu- tion and development of innovative payment solu- tions.

These eight vertical are considered crucial to the wide spread usage of the payment system.

The identified sectors have been carefully select- ed in view of the potential for driving growth through the payment system in the country, and the sectors equally portend opportuni- ties for applying ingenious solutions that would assist to resolve structural rigidi- ties and support growth in commerce.

“We therefore expect in- novations to be in tandem with our vision of develop- ing these verticals. We are positioning our oversight efforts to stimulate innova- tion rather than to strangle it. Innovators can therefore be assured that the CBN will promote policies that will enhance competition, collaboration corporation and encourage new en- trants into payment eco- system in Nigeria,” he said.

HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE