Electronic payment transactions rise by 44% in four months

Value of transactions on the electronic bills payment platform rose by 44 percent year on year to hit N114.8 trillion in the first four months of 2022 from N79.5 trillion in the corresponding period, data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), shows.

The increase in the e-payment transactions value for the four months was a reflection of the surge in the volume of deals within the period, the data further shows.

In January 2022, the Nigeria Instant Payment (NIP) platform recorded N26.6 trillion transactions, and N18.5 trillion recorded in the same period of last year, making a 43.7 percent increase.

February 2022 recorded transactions worth N27.2 trillion processed electronically, and increased to N31.8 trillion in March, to settle at N29.2 trillion in April. This represented a 48.6, 44.5, and 41.6 percent growth rate respectively when compared to the same periods in 2021.

Electronic channels were used 1.88 trillion times in the period under review, a 44.3 percent increase from the 1.3 trillion times that they were used in the corresponding period of 2021.

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Also, according to the NIBSS data, the NIP volume rose to 1.4 billion in the four months, showing a four percent increase from over 999 million recorded in the same period last year.

Following the same trend, the volume of POS transactions in the first four months of 2022 amounted to about N377 million, a 24.8 percentage increase from what was recorded in the same period of 2021 at N302 million. In terms of value, it recorded an increase rate of 25.6 percent year-on-year from N19.9 trillion to N25 trillion.

In a report titled ‘Instant Payments- 2020 Annual Statistics’, NIBSS said COVID-19 had changed the e-payments landscape, and hastened the adoption of instant payments as people switch to electronic channels for funds exchange.

Over the years, NIBSS says Nigerian banks have exposed NIP through their various channels, including internet banking, bank branch, kiosks, mobile apps, USSD, POS, and ATM, to their customers.