Nigeria’s payment system has been ranked the most advanced in Africa, and one of the most active globally, driven by the rapid adoption of fintech services and increased smartphone usage.
This insight comes from “The State of Enterprise 2025 Report” by EnterpriseNGR, which stated that out of 266.2 billion real-time payment transactions recorded worldwide, Nigeria accounted for 7.9 billion placing it among the top countries worldwide. India accounted for 129.3 billion, Brazil 37.4 billion, Thailand 20.4 billion, China 17.2 billion, and South Korea 9.1 billion.
The report highlighted that the volume recorded surpassed other African countries, the report reads: “This far exceeds the volume recorded by other African economies, including South Africa (284 million), Egypt (39 million), and Kenya (20 million).”
The widespread adoption of mobile banking, internet banking, and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) continues to enhance financial service delivery in Nigeria, enabling individuals to conduct transactions like fund transfer, bill payment, and airtime purchase seamlessly.
Data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) showed that POS transactions reached 1.5 billion in 2024, a 7.1% increase from the 1.4 billion recorded in 2023, while Mobile money transactions grew by 30% to 3.9 billion. Also, electronic payment transactions surged to N1.08 quadrillion in 2024, an 80% increase from N600 trillion in 2023.
The report emphasised that for Nigeria to compete favourably with countries like India, Brazil, and Thailand, it needs to strengthen the quality of its payment ecosystem, extend infrastructure coverage, and provide regulatory support.
