New Telegraph

E-payment: Bank customers transfer N771.9bn in 1 month

Bank customers in the country transferred a total of N771.9 billion over mobile devices in September, New Telegraph has learnt. This represents 7.2 per cent growth over N719.4 billion recorded in the previous month.

 

This brought the total value of mobile transfers between January and September to N5.06 trillion. With the nine-month record, the value of mobile transfers for the year may more than double that of last year, which stood at N3.05 trillion.

 

According to statistics released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS), the volume of the mobile inter-scheme transactions also rose by 1.1 per cent from 26.6 million recorded August to 26.9 million in September. Analysis of the value of the transactions for the nine months showed that N390.5 billion was transferred via mobile in January this year.

 

In February, transactions worth N407.8 billion were carried over the mobile, while in March a total ofN480.9 billion was recorded as mobile transfers. In April, a total of N502.7 billion was transferred by bank customers across the country while the figure rose to N526.9 billion in May.

 

The data showed that a total of N603 billion was transferred via mobile in June. In July, mobile transactions valued at N665 billion were recorded, while the monthly figure of transfers rose to N719 billion in August. The September figure came as the highest monthly value recorded so far.

 

Throughout last year, the total value of mobile transfers in the country stood at N3.05 trillion, hitting an all-time annual figure. With the nine months figure already surpassing that, a new record has been set this year. Similarly, the NIBSS data revealed that the value of bills paid through electronic channel rose to N196.2 billion in September.

 

Compared with N192.6 billion recorded in August, this represented a 1.8 per cent increase. The volume of e-bills also jumped from 89.6 million in August to 107.9 million in September.

 

E-Bills Pay is an account-based, 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 used for payments such as utility bills, cable TV subscriptions, hotel and airline bookings, school fees, and airtime top-up. According to NIBSS data, more Nigerians are now embracing payment of bills electronically as opposed to paying with cash.

 

Meanwhile, as more Nigerians embrace electronic payment, fraudsters have also upped their game in their attacks leading to a 186 per cent increase in financial frauds from 16,128 in 2019 to 46,126 in 2020.

 

According to the fraud report recently released by NIBSS, the criminals are focusing more on the mobile payment system, hence, fraud attempts on mobile increased

by 330 per cent between January and September last year. The shift in attention to mobile may not be unconnected to the fact that many bank customers now rely on their mobile for financial transactions.

 

This was also evident from the NIBBSS report on mobile transactions, which showed that bank customers transferred a total of N3.05 trillion through mobile in 2020. This came as an all-time, representing a whopping 268 per cent increase over N828 billion mobile deals recorded in 2019.

 

Aside from the mobile, NIBSS in the Q3 2020 fraud report disclosed that the fraudsters are also targeting web payment and Point of Sales (PoS) both of which recorded 173 per cent and 215 per cent increase in fraud attempts in the nine-month.

According to the report, the financial system lost a total of N5.2 billion to fraudsters in nine months. It added that the fraudsters attempted attacks 46,126 times, and they were successful on 41,979 occasions, representing 91 per cent.

NIBSS said: “The growing trend of financial fraud would continue as Nigeria further grows financial inclusion and customers become increasingly dependent on electronic channels for their day-to-day transactions.

 

It, therefore, urged financial institutions to be poised to promptly detect and block any of such fraudulent activity from negatively impacting the customer’s perception of their platforms and products while also ensuring that customers are informed and perceptive enough to identify and reject

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