Mobile Money Transaction Grows N40bn Monthly
SAN FRANCISCO, February 26, (THEWILL) – The Nigeria electronic payment space has recorded tremendous growth with mobile money transaction growing by N40 billion monthly. A total of 138,990 Point of Sale (PoS) have been deployed as of February 2016, from 5,000 in 2012, when the cashless policy was introduced, according to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
This was disclosed by Suleiman Barau, Deputy Governor, Operations Directorate, CBN, at the Electronic Payment Incentive Scheme (EPIS) efficiency awards organised by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement system (NIBSS) plc and the CBN in Lagos.
Barau acknowledged that infrastructure had always been a problem in the e-payment space adding that the CBN was licensing some agents that would help address this.
“We will continue to work on the infrastructure. We are licensing agents. We are going to have super agents. We are going to have agents and the agents will have sub-agents. So, the agents will help us a lot in addressing some of the issues on network we have today,” he said.
The CBN and NIBSS jointly presented a total of 20 awards to banks, states government and non-bank institutions that performed well in the e-payments space.
GTBank took the lead in the cashless driver awards for banks, winning the cashless driver instant payment in 2015, cashless driver PoS issued cards transactions and instant payment transaction efficiency, among others. It was followed by Zenith Bank plc that won cashless driver bulk payment and cashless driver PoS transactions acquiring.
Under the cashless driver awards for non-banks, Ikeja Electric Distribution Company, Sof Alliance and Resource limited, Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), Paga, Interswitch and others were recognised.
Accountant General of the Federation, Lagos State government, Kwara State government, and First Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) all went home with the award under the cashless driver government.
Speaking with journalists immediately after the awards, Adebisi Shonubi, managing director/CEO, NIBSS, said: “What we are hoping this award could bring out is healthy rivalry amongst the banks. We picked the top three. Almost all the banks showed improvement we sent report to their chief executive on monthly basis to show their performance.”
The apex bank in 2012 introduced cashless policy basically to reduce the cash intensity in the economy, and by implication to encourage e-payments, with a lot of e-channels to drive the policy. These e-channels include PoS, multifunctional ATMs, internet banking, NIBSS electronic funds transfer (NEF), NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP), mobile payments, and others.
However, following high level of merchant apathy that inhibited adoption of the e-payments, the CBN came up with EPIS Efficiency Awards with the objective of recognising, encouraging all stakeholders in the payment space in Nigeria.
Other objectives of the programme include the rewarding and appreciative efforts in adoption as well as usage of all channels including those that promote financial inclusion.
Story by David Oputah