Cashless Transactions Surge 88% To N237trn In Q1

Cash transactions in Nigeria rose to N237 trillion in the first quarter of 2024, according to new statistics from the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System.

According to data, this was an 88 per cent increase from the N126 trillion reported in the first quarter of 2023.

BusinessDay analysis of the data revealed that electronic payment channels were used 3.09 billion times in the first three months, a 6.2 percent increase from the 2.91 billion times they were used in the corresponding period of 2023.

The NIBSS records cashless transactions from the Nigeria Instant Payment System and Point of Sales terminals. The total value of instant payment in the first three months was N234.5 trillion, and PoS was N2.6 trillion.

In 2023, cashless transactions in Nigeria increased to N611.06 trillion.

It said the payments grew to N611.06 trillion from N395.38trn as of the end of 2022 indicating a 54.55 per cent year-on-year growth.

The NIBSS Instant Payments is an account-number-based, online real-time Inter-Bank payment solution developed in the year 2011 by NIBSS. It is the Nigerian financial industry’s preferred funds transfer platform that guarantees instant value to the beneficiary.

According to NIBSS, over the years, Nigerian banks have exposed NIP through their various channels, that is, internet banking, bank branches, Kiosks, mobile apps, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, POS, ATM, etc. to their customers.

Analysis of the data showed that electronic payment channels were used 11.05 billion times in 2023, a 75.96 per cent increase from the 6.28 billion times they were used in 2022 while the total value of instant payment in 2023 was N600.36 trillion and Point of Sales transactions was N10.7 trillion and relied upon for 1.38 billion times.