As the race for a cashless economy heats up, a total of 711.29 million transactions valued at N40.48 trillion were recorded on electronic payment channels within the nation’s banking sector within the months of April to June, representing the second quarter (Q2) of the year.
Data released by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show 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.
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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 valued at N9.03 trillion were carried out while in June, 87.42 million transactions valued at N7.86 trillion were carried out.
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 transaction valued at N542.43 billion.
Point-of-sale terminals also recorded huge volume of transaction 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 transaction 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 transaction through Remita, an e-payment platform that helps individuals and organisations 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.
The new policy direction of the CBN is to drive the economy towards a cashless economy with the introduction of a 3 percent processing fees on withdrawals and 2 percent for deposits of amounts above N500,000 for individual accounts.
Similarly, corporate accounts will attract 5 percent processing fees for withdrawals and 3 percent processing fee for lodgements of amounts above N3 million.
