New Telegraph

Lull in COVID-19 boosts PoS deals by 43% to N4trn

Deployed terminals rise to 686,580

Following significant drop in Coronavirus scare across tye country in the last eight months, the value of transaction on Point of Sale (PoS) terminal rose by 43 per cent within the period. Findings by New Telegraph revealed that bank customers’ transactions through the platform amounted to N4 trillion.

The value of transactions between January and August this year represents a 43 per cent growth over N2.8 trillion recorded in the same period last year. According to the latest data released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS), there was also a significant increase in the number of transactions over the platform this year compared with last year.

Transaction volume in the eight months stood at 619 million, a 62 per cent growth over 382 million recorded in the same period of 2020. A breakdown of the value of the transactions shows that deals valued at N489.2 billion were carried out over the PoS terminals across the country in January.

In February, the value of PoS deals stood at N468.9 billion, while the figure rose to N531.4 billion in March. In April, bank customers spent N507.86 billion on the electronic platform, while the value of spending in May stood at N503.96 billion.

The records for June and July showed that N503.91 billion and N554.67 billion respectively were spent over the platform, while in August, deals valued at N504.88 billion were recorded across the country. Over the years, transactions over the PoS channel have sustained annual growth as more Nigerians embrace e-payment. While the total value of transactions on the platform in full-year 2020 stood at N4.7 trillion, the 2021 figures indicate that the records of the past year will be surpassed going by the N4 trillion recorded in eight months and the monthly values recorded so far.

The NIBSS data shows that a total of 686, 580 PoS terminals have been deployed by merchants as of August 2021. This shows that additional 314,250 terminals have been deployed in the last year. As of August 2020, the total deployed machines across the country stood at 372,330. However, there is still a gap between the number of registered PoS and the number of deployed machines. According to NIBSS, a total of 1.07 million PoS terminals had been registered as of August this year, which showed that a total of 392,896 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 stems 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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