Latest survey by the Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access, (EFInA) 2023 revealed that more than 40% of Nigerians used Digital Financial Services in the past 12 months, signifying an improvement from 34 percent in 2020.
Accordingly, the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) ePayment data for 2023 indicates that the value of electronic payment (ePayment) transactions grew by 66 percent to N664.21 trillion in 2023 from N387 trillion in 2022.
This reflects Nigerians’ increased adoption of electronic payment channels, driven by cash scarcity and increased financial inclusion.
Following the same trend, the volume of electronic payment transactions increased by 240 percent to 17.34 billion from 5.1 billion in 2022.
NIBSS also reported that the highest volume of transactions valued at N1.76 billion was recorded in December reflecting increased spending due to the festive season.
The lowest volume was recorded in March with N978.7 million transactions.
Furthermore, the highest value of transactions, N79 trillion, was recorded in December 2023 while the lowest was recorded in February 2022 with N40.9 trillion transactions.
“Financial inclusion continues to grow, even as formal financial inclusion grew from 56 percent (2020) to 64 percent (2023). “Nigeria is just 1.0 percent point away from achieving the 2022 Nigerian Financial Inclusion Strategy, NFIS, recommended targets for 2024 and must now pay equal attention to deepening the quality and impact of inclusion,” it added.
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