Cheque Transactions Decline as Electronic Payments Surge

• Cheque Transactions Decline as Electronic Payments Surge

The size of cheques cleared in the Nigerian banking sector declined as more bank customers adopt electronic payments for their financial transactions.

According to the Nigerian Interbank Settlement Scheme, the total volume of cheques cleared in January dropped by 20 per cent to 712,191, up from 885,166 filed in January 2018.

Also, the value of cash withdrawn via cheques dropped by 23 per cent from N763.07 billion in January 2018 to N591.35 billion in January 2019.

The drop in cheque transactions has been attributed to the surge in electronic payment transactions as more customers embrace digital payments and banks continue to ease banking stress through technological innovations.

The report noted that volume of Point of Sales, unstructured supplementary service data, instant transfer and electronic bills payment recorded double-digit growth during the period.

While electronic payment of utility bills, airtime top-up, cable TV, hotels and airlines, among others, rose by 55 per cent to 134,656 in January 2019, up from 87,076 recorded in the same month of 2017.

Mr Kayode Ariyo, the Managing Director, Global Accelerex, attributed the surge in electronic transactions to the increase in its adoption by customers.

He said, “The major factor that has contributed to that is the acceptance. People are getting more comfortable with the card payment. The adoption of electronic payment is on the increase by consumers.

“Retailers and merchants have come to terms with it. In the past, we had to appeal to merchants to use the PoS channel. But now, we have a trend where merchants are the ones calling and asking for PoS terminals.”