Africa-Press – Nigeria. The value of transactions on point of sales (PoS) terminals across the country totalled N4.7trn in 2020, an amount which is 48 per cent higher than N3.2 trillion recorded in 2019, as Nigeria’s cashless population significantly increases on the back of COVID-19, industry statistics from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Scheme (NIBSS) has showed
According to the NIBSS data, Nigerians performed 656 million transactions from January to December. This is an increase of about 217.14 million from the transactions registered in 2019.
A breakdown of the data shows that the 77.9 million volume of transaction recorded during the festive season in December was the highest in 3 years, worth N574.37billion, as more Nigerians continue opting to use POS for their daily transactions.
The lowest volume of transaction was recorded in April during the forced lockdown by the federal government to reduce the spread of Covid-19.
Yet, 40.86 million volume of transactions worth N272.05 is higher than the average of 2019.
Stakeholders in the industry have continued to attribute the growth in transactions on the PoS terminals to the expansion of agent bankers across the country and the long queue at the bank due to COVID-19 restrictions
Also, mobile inter scheme transactions in 2020 reached N3 trillion, up by over 3000% from N828 billion recorded in 2019.
NIBSS instant payments (NIP) also recorded a significant increase as transactions hit 158 trillion up from the N105.2 trillion in 2019.
Other E-payments recorded include, E-bills with a total transaction worth N1.4 trillion from N652 billion recorded in 2019.
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