By Oladimeji Abidoye and Sylvester Okoh
TUE, 23 AUGUST 2016-Latest report released by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, ‘Electronic Payment Channels In The Nigerian Banking Sector 2015-Q2 2016’ reflects an improved usage and acceptance of different electronic channels of payment from the year 2015 to the Q2, 2016 with Nigeria tending towards a cashless society.
The cashless policy which was established in 2012 to curb excess handling of cash and to reduce the volume of cash in circulation has shown progress down the years and Nigerians are becoming more accustomed with electronic payment despite the lingering security doubts and irritating transaction failures.
According to NBS data released on August 22, 2016, the NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer) and NIP (Nigerian Interbank Settlement System Instant Payment) continued to record huge success which shows the cashless policy is gaining momentum. The data shows that NEFT usage in terms of value increased from N6.8trillion in Q2 2015 to N7.7 trillion Q2 of2016, this is a hefty 11% increase from last year while NIP had a huge increase from N10.3trillion from Q2 2015 to N19.2 trillion by Q2 2016, that’s about a 47% increase.
This increase is reflected in the volume of usage with NEFT increasing by 14.8% while NIP had 55.7% increase comparing the half year results.
Despite the challenges of using ATM, more Nigerians are also turning to their devices for their daily transactions as the data showed. The value of transaction conducted through the devices increased by 26.88% compare to Q2 2015 whiles the volume also increasing by 33.3%.
There was an improved usage of the POS as well with the volume of usage increasing by 50.9% compare to Q2 2015 with the value giving rise to 45.4%
Cheque usage has a minimal increase of 4% in both its value and volume suggesting that customers are getting more comfortable using their electronic mode of transfer payment.
Internet transaction also had an increase in value of about 40.6% while its volume increased by 47%.
The Mobile payments also had a huge increase in its value of transactions made by customers with a 49.6% with its volume having a minimal increase of 28%.
E-BILLSPAY which is another platform of payment by NIBSS (Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement system) had its volume reduced by 4% while the value increased by 45.7%with
Out of all the mode of electronic payment, the NIP has the highest volume of increase with the corporate organisations and individuals embracing the use in 2016 while E-BILLSPAY had a reduced usage in 2016 compared to 2015.
With this progress shown in Q2 2016, the projection of the final year report shows that electronic payment channel will have a better usage compared to the 2015 result.
