In February 2023, cashless transactions in Nigeria plummeted to N37.67 trillion as a result of hiccups and delays in cash transfers.
According to new data released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System on Monday, this represented a 4.83 percent decrease from the N39.58 trillion that was recorded in January.
E-payment gateway usage increased from 638 million uses in January to 901.46 million uses in February, a 41.29 percent rise. Despite a rise in usage, there were more unsuccessful transactions in February as the total amount of cashless transactions dropped.
The NIBSS has not updated its efficiency platform portal, which states the number of failed transitions and more, since 2020.
As the major payment switch in the country, the NIBSS records cashless transactions from the Nigeria Instant Payment System and Point of Sales terminals. In February, the total NIP (instant payments) fell to N36.79tn from N38.772tn in January.
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The data from NIBB showed continued patronage of PoS terminals as the value of PoS transactions grew from N807.16bn in January to N883.45bn in February.
Since the Central Bank of Nigeria announced its naira redesign policy and withdrawal limits, in 2022, Nigerians have had to adopt electronic forms of transactions.
While announcing its policy, the apex bank said, “The maximum weekly limit for cash withdrawals across all channels by individuals and corporate organisations shall be N500,000 and N5m respectively.”
It added, “Customers should be encouraged to use alternative channels (Internet banking, mobile banking apps, USSD, cards/POS, eNaira, etc.) to conduct their banking transactions.”
However, the pressure of increased electronic payment has overwhelmed the banking sector, leaving many customers stranded. Many bankers have suggested that some of these failures have been because the NIBSS didn’t increase its capacity for the increase in the volume of transactions.
Some experts have also stated that a lot of failing transactions are a result of poor network infrastructure.
The President of the Bank Customers Association of Nigeria, Dr Uju Ogunbunka, recently told ANAEDOONLINE.NG, “You know the banks do not provide network services. Based on what we found out, there was a failure in the network system.”
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