Nigerians Abandoned Teller Payment as Mobile Transactions Rose to N11.10tn in 8 Months

The value of mobile transactions rose to N11.10 trillion in eight months, signifying a drastic change from the teller and cheque payments. 

Data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) has shown that more Nigerians are embracing mobile payment in recent times. Between January to August of this year, the value of mobile transactions has risen to N11.10 trillion. 

This represents more than 150 percent increments if compared with the total value of mobile transactions recorded in the corresponding period in 2021. 

The total value of mobile transactions between January to August 2021 was N4.29 trillion as stated on the NIBSS website. 

Investors King understands that mobile transactions began to gain huge tractions during Covid 19 pandemic which forced many banks to shut their doors. Banks, therefore, encourage their customers to use mobile transactions as an alternative payment method. 

Banks also invested in marketing content to promote the use of mobile applications and USSD codes. Another factor that has largely contributed to the adoption of mobile payments is the increase in the number of people that use smartphones.  

An analyst, Damilola Adewale stated that the country’s financial inclusion is improving as more people access the financial service from the comfort of their phones.

NIBSS disclosed that mobile device transactions accounted for 43 percent of the total electronic payments made in 2020 while USSD transactions accounted for 35 per cent of all electronic payments in 2020. 

Aside from mobile transactions, NIBSS further indicated that Point of Sales (POS) transactions also followed the same trend. The volume of POS transactions in August 2022 rose to 98.4 million compared to 75.6 million recorded in August 2021. This represents a 30.2 percent increase within the period under review. 

It could be recalled that in 2012, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced the cashless policy which aimed to prevent the unnecessary handling of cash and limit the volume of cash in circulation. It is glaring that the policy has largely been successful.