Cashless Transactions Increase To N611tn - NIBSS

The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System has disclosed on Wednesday that cashless transactions in the country increased to N611.06tn in 2023.

It stated that the payments rose by 54.55 per cent year-on-year from N395.38tn in 2022.

NIBSS Instant Payments is an account-number-based, online real-time Inter-Bank payment solution developed in the year 2011 by NIBSS.

An analysis of data from NIBSS indicated that electronic payment channels were used 11.05 billion times in 2023, a 75.96 per cent increase from the 6.28 billion times they were used in the prior year.

It also showed that the total value of instant payments in 2023 was N600.36tn, and Point of Sales transactions was N10.7tn and relied upon for 1.38 billion times..

While the e-payment data indicate a steady growth throughout the 12 months of the year, the highest value was recorded in December, which was a festive period.

In December, transaction by Nigerians reached up to N71.9tn over electronic channels.

According to the NIBSS data, e-payment volume hit an all-time high of 1.1 billion in March 2023, when the country experienced cash scarcity and were forced to transact through electronic channels.

The value for March, however, was not as high as what was recorded in December.

A look at the value of electronic transactions month by month has disclosed that Nigerians spent N38.9tn on electronic platforms in January and in the following month, e-payment value stood at N36.8tn.