New Telegraph

NIBSS: Mobile transfers hit N2.9trn in six months

Bank customers in the country transferred a total of N2.9 trillion over mobile devices in the last six months, New Telegraph has learnt. The six months record is N100 billion less than the N3 trillion total transfers made in the 12 months of last year.

 

According to statistics released by the Nigeria Inter- Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS), the mobile transactions figure from January to June this year represents a 190 per cent growth over N1 trillion recorded in the same period of last year.

 

The NIBSS data revealed that the volume of the mobile inter-scheme transactions also rose by 113 per cent from 51 million recorded between January and June last year to 109 million in the same period of 2021.

 

Analysis of the value of the transactions for the six months showed that the sum of 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 of N480.9 billion was recorded as mobile transfers. In April, a total of N502.7 billion were 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. Throughout last year, the total value of mobile transfers in the country stood at N3 trillion, hitting an all-time annual figure. With almost the same figure already recorded in the first six months of this year, analysts said bank customers will be setting a new record of mobile transfers this year.

 

Similarly, the NIBSS data showed that electronic payments through the various platforms made available by banks and facilitated by NIBSS sustained their gains in the period under review.

 

Specifically, the value of bills paid through the electronic channel rose to N1 trillion in the six months.

 

Compared with N569 billion recorded in the same period last year, this represented a 75 per cent increase 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 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 rise, 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.

Read Previous

Red Star: Operational challenges impact earnings

Read Next

FG rebuffs attempt to alter FTZs’ draft report

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *