AMID the economic hardship and digital glitches that dominated last year, financial transactions via electronic payment platforms rose by nearly 80 per cent to break the quadrillion mark for the first time in 2024
Specifically, e-payment transactions rose by nearly 8 0 per cent above N600 trillion recorded in 2023 to hit N1.07 quadrillion. This is according to data released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) yesterday.
While the e-payment data showed a steady increase throughout the 12 months of the year, the highest value was recorded in December. The analysis showed that in January, from 887.58 million volumes of transactions, Nigerians spent N72.1 trillion; in February, 905 million transactions valued at N79.3 trillion were closed. March saw 986.6 million transactions valued at N83 trillion; April witnessed 953.6 million transactions valued at N75.3 trillion while May witnessed 1.02 billion transactions, which resulted in N87.4 trillion.
Further, volumes of transactions in June came down to 871.7 million and resulted in N79.6 trillion e-payment values. In July, the value was N89.5 trillion from 907 million volumes.
In August, the volume was N90.8 trillion; for September, from 935 million transactions, the e-payment value rose to N93.5 trillion. In October, the volume rose to 980.3 million valued at N103.2 trillion while November saw 931.3 million transactions, which amounted to N109.5 trillion.
Being a festive period with lots of spending, Nigerians spent a total of N115.1 trillion through electronic channels in December 2024. The volume was 962.2 million.
Further, the volume of transactions processed by NIBSS for the year also jumped from 9.7 billion in 2023 to 11.2 billion in 2024. This represents a 15.5 per cent increase in the volume of electronic transactions year on year.
NIBSS puts Point of Sales (PoS) value at N18, 146,540,000,000 in 2024 against N10, 736,720,000,000 recorded in 2023. The volume was 1,450,290,000 in 2024 against 1,386,160,000 of 2023.
Industry analysts believe that the surge in e-payment transactions can be linked to the recent cash crunch experience and the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) limiting the amount of cash that can be withdrawn daily.
According to the revised cashless policy, which came into effect on January 9, 2023, cash withdrawal by an individual is limited to N500,000 a week, while corporate organisations have a N5 million withdrawal limit in a week.
Further, the non-availability of cash at both the banking halls and their ATM terminals also pushed Nigerians to embrace e-payment. The gap pushed so many people to resort to PoS operators, through which they either use their cards or transfer into accounts to receive cash.
Last week, a CBN report revealed that Nigerians transacted N85.91 trillion through PoS terminals in the first half of 2024, a figure that is over seven times the N12.21 trillion recorded for ATM transactions within the same period.
When compared to 2023, the value of POS transactions saw a 77 per cent increase, rising from N48.44 trillion to N85.91 trillion, while the volume of transactions grew by 31 per cent, from 4.87 billion to 6.39 billion.
This growth can be attributed to the widespread availability of POS terminals and the ease they provide for cashless transactions across the country. In contrast, ATM transactions dropped in value from N14.63 trillion in 2023 to N12.21 trillion in 2024, a 16.6 per cent decline, while their volume also fell slightly, from 519.52 million to 496.43 million.
Comparing 2023 to 2022, POS transactions demonstrated more robust growth, as the country battled cash scarcity at the end of 2022 and the start of 2023. The value of transactions jumped by 205 per cent, from N15.86 trillion in 2022 to N48.44 trillion in 2023, while the volume surged by 185 per cent, from 1.71 billion to 4.87 billion.
ATM transactions showed a mixed trend during this period. The value rose from N12.64 trillion in 2022 to N14.63 trillion in 2023, representing a 15.8 per cent increase.
However, the volume dropped significantly from 713.69 million to 519.52 million, suggesting that while fewer transactions were conducted, they were of higher value.
Meanwhile, the NIBSS has put the number of active bank accounts in Nigeria at 311.6 million as of December. At the end of 2023, NIBSS data showed that total active bank accounts in the country stood at 202.6 million.
This indicated that a total of 106 million new accounts were opened or reactivated between January and December last year, a year-on-year growth of about 50 per cent.
While the NIBSS data is based on reports from banks, millions of Nigerians are financially included through fintech accounts. According to NIBSS, the number of inactive or dormant bank accounts in the country stood at 19.5 million. This showed a 7.9 per cent increase in the number of abandoned accounts year-on-year as the figure stood at 18.06 million at the end of 2023.
An inactive or dormant account is a bank account that has had no activity on it for 12 months. Banks convert accounts with no activity for a long period into inoperative or dormant accounts to curtail the risk of fraud.
By segregating the accounts, banks bring to their workers’ attention the risk involved in these accounts and call for their due diligence. Similarly, the NIBSS data shows that the number of bank accounts that have been closed stood at 25.5 million. This showed that about 4.3 million bank accounts were closed in the year and the number of closed bank accounts was 21.2 million as of December 2023.