Cash transactions in Nigeria rose to N237 trillion in the first quarter of 2024, the new statistics from the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System as revealed.
Available date shows this was an 88 per cent increase from the N126 trillion reported in the first quarter of 2023.
Data analysis 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.
Although Cashless transaction also grew to N611.06 trillion from N395.38trn as of the end of 2022 indicating a 54.55 per cent year-on-year growth.
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.
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.
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.
Meanwhile, the Association of Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), has urged banks to prioritize the payment of their unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) debt.
Gbenga Adebayo, the chairman of Alton, said during the first telecoms stakeholders’ meeting with Aminu Maida the executive vice chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), in Lagos.
According to Adebayo, the debts owned by banks had increased to N200 billion, he noted that there have talks on the issue, no considerable action was taken on the parts of the banks.
Adebayo, said the debt must be paid in total, nothing that telcos would not hesitate to block debtors from accessing the service anytime.
There is no gainsaying the fact that the unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) and Telcos play critical roles in facilitating transactions.
Mobile telecom companies in Nigeria, including MTN, Glo, Airtel, and 9mobile, had last year received approval from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to disconnect Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in the country.
The approval was granted due to the banks’ failure to pay debts peg at N120 billion for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) services.
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