Nigerians favoured instant transfers more in the first seven months of 2024 as total cashless transactions rose by 84.37 percent to N572.63 trillion, according to new data from the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS).
This growth underscored the growing reliance on digital payments in a country trying to wean itself from cash dependence. As of the end of 2023, cashless payments grew to N611.06tn from N395.38tn in 2022, and experts have said the numbers will hit unprecedented levels in 2024.
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The NIBSS records cashless transactions across instant payments and Point of Sale (PoS). Instant payments recorded an 86.44 percent increase to N566.39 trillion.
PoS channels, the star of the show when the Central Bank of Nigeria announced a naira redesign policy and withdrawal limits from December 2022, recorded an 8.19 percent decline to N6.23 trillion.
After announcing a limit on transactions, the apex bank said in 2022, “Customers should be encouraged to use alternative channels (Internet banking, mobile banking apps, USSD, cards/POS, eNaira, etc.) to conduct their banking transactions.”
Despite the withdrawal of this policy, the growth of the cashless economy has continued unabated, in line with the CBN’s Payments Vision 2025, which expects cash payments to naturally reduce in 2025. It said that by 2025, the country aspireS to have a cashless and efficient electronic payment system infrastructure.
“The use of cash will naturally slow with the ‘mobile first generation’, which will be economically active by 2025, hence one of the focuses of the PSV 2025 is enhancing the cashless policy of the CBN,” the apex bank highlighted.
