The landscape of financial transactions in Nigeria is undergoing a dramatic transformation as Point-of-Sale (PoS) terminals now serve an average of one for every 41 persons in the country. This expansion is indicative of the shift to digital payments, driven by convenience and persistent challenges at Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).
With Nigeria’s population projected to be around 240 million, the latest data has shown that the proliferation of Point of Sale (PoS) terminals has grown to one per 41 persons in the country.
This comes as both the volume and value of transactions carried out via the channel rose by 207.1 per cent and 147.4 per cent respectively. According to the latest figures released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), the PoS-to-person ratio in the country has improved compared to one PoS per 43 persons in December and one PoS per 89 persons as of March 2024.
The data revealed that, as of the end of the first quarter of this year, registered PoS terminals had risen to 8.355 million, compared to 7.786 million as of December last year. Of these, 5.9 million had already been deployed and were in active use by the end of March 2025, up from 5.56 million deployed as of the end of last year.
Rising unemployment in the country, as well as the rapid entry of fintech companies into the agency banking space, has led to more people venturing into the business, which now saturates streets, markets, and bus parks across the country.
In total, the volume of transactions conducted via the PoS channel in the first three months of the year rose to 776.93 million, compared to 314 million recorded in the same period of 2024.
Similarly, the value of these transactions surged to N10.51 trillion in Q1 2025, compared to N3.422 trillion in Q1 2024. Despite this overall growth, a decline was observed when analysed on a month-by-month basis.
In January, the value of PoS transactions stood at N4.116 trillion, but this declined to N3.177 trillion in February before picking up slightly to N3.217 trillion in March.
However, the highest monthly value recorded this year was lower than the peak value of PoS transactions last year. In 2024, the highest value of N4.38 trillion was recorded in November.
Meanwhile, electronic payment transactions rose to N284.99 trillion in the first quarter of 2025, although the volume of transactions declined to 2.215 billion. According to the latest data, the value of transactions via the NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) platform rose by 21.5 per cent when compared to the N234.49 trillion recorded in the first quarter of last year.
The NIP is an account-number-based, real-time inter-bank payment solution developed in 2011 by NIBSS. It facilitates transactions across multiple electronic channels, including internet banking, mobile apps, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), PoS, and ATMs, among others.
An analysis of the three-month data shows that the highest transaction value was recorded in January, as Nigerians performed transactions worth N100.059 trillion via electronic platforms. In February, the value of NIP transactions fell to N88.86 trillion before rising again to N96.06 trillion in March.
However, the transaction volume on the NIP channel declined in the first quarter of the year when compared to the same period in 2024. The cumulative transaction volume fell to 2.215 billion in Q1 2025, compared to 2.779 billion recorded in Q1 2024.
A monthly breakdown showed that the highest volume of 792.06 million was recorded in January 2025, which was lower than the 887.58 million recorded in January 2024. In February 2025, transaction volume declined to 687.57 million before rising to 735.5 million in March. These figures, however, remained below the 905 million and 986.6 million recorded in February and March of last year, respectively.
