New Telegraph

Bank customers transfer N390.5bn over mobile

e-bill payments hit N155.5bn

Financial transactions through mobile phones maintained steady growth in January as bank customers transferred a total of N390.5 billion through their devices, New Telegraph has learnt. The value of the mobile transactions in the first month of this year represents a 193 per cent growth over N133.2 billion recorded in the same period of last year. However, according to the e-payment data released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS), the value of mobile inter-scheme transactions in January was lower than the N459.7 billion recorded in December 2020.

The NIBSS data revealed that the volume of mobile transactions also rose by 102 per cent from 7.3 million recorded in January 2020 to 14.9 million in the same period of this year. While the outbreak of COVID-19 had forced many Nigerians to embrace electronic payment to limit faceto- face transactions, industry analysts said the steady growth in mobile and other electronic forms of payment is also an indication that efforts to deepen financial inclusion by banks, fintech, and telecommunications companies are yielding positive results.

Meanwhile, the NIBSS data showed that electronic payments through the various platforms made available by banks and facilitated by NIBSS sustained gains in the period under review. The value of bills paid through the electronic channel, for instance, rose to N155.5 billion in January. Compared with N92.7 billion recorded in the same period of last year, this represented a 67 per cent growth year-on-year. E-Bills Pay is an accountbased, online real-time product that facilitates the payment of bills from an account.

It ensures instant credit of payments and receipt of collections on behalf of billers/merchant recruited on the platform. Currently, the platform is ity bills, cable TV subscriptions, hotel and airline bookings, school fees, and airtime top-ups. According to NIBSS data, more Nigerians are now embracing payment of bills electronically as opposed to paying with cash. However, the volume of bills paid in January 2021, which stood at 101,580 is lower than 122,690 recorded in the same period of last year but higher than the 92,210 recorded in December 2020. Data for Point of Sales (PoS) transactions also showed sustained growth as deals valued at N489.2 billion were carried out over the PoS terminals across the country in January.

According to the NIBSS report, this was a 56 per cent growth when compared with N313.4 billion recorded in the same month of last year. However, placed side by side with the N574.3 billion transactions recorded in December 2020, which witnessed more spending activities because of the festivities in the month, the January figure showed a 14.8 per cent decline. The volume of transactions also increased from 41.3million recorded in January 2020 to 70.8 million in January 2021. This represents a 71 per cent growth year-on-year.

The transactions were carried out over 475,490 active terminals deployed by merchants across the country. This also showed that additional 16,200 terminals were deployed in January this year as the number of deployed machines stood at 459,290 as of December 2020. However, there is still a gap between the number of registered PoS and the number of deployed machines. According to NIBSS, 730,810 PoS were registered as of January this year, which showed that a total of 255, 320 terminals are either yet to be deployed or have become inactive.

Meanwhile, an expert in the payment industry has called for more innovation in the e-payment system to limit contacts. Speaking recently at the American Business Council Economic Update in partnership with Mastercard, Principal/Divisional Lead at Mastercard Advisors (sub- Saharan Africa), Bola Asiru, noted that the changes in payment patterns also stemmed from a rising consciousness that limiting contacts with cash will not be sufficient if payment cards still have to be handled by different parties before payment is made.

In the bid to limit contact, “businesses need to adapt their strategic plans in order to add value to evolving consumer needs,” Asiru noted in his presentation during the virtual conference. “Contactless technology has proven to be an asset in a world where consumers must limit contact with cash,” he said. The use of POS machines and ATMs in Nigeria currently requires an individual to provide the card for the cashier to swipe or inserting one’s card into the machine to retrieve cash. After this, the buyer still replaces the card in his wallet.

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