The value of electronic payment transactions carried out in the first three months of 2021 in the economy rose 82 percent to N65.6 trillion compared with N36.02 trillion in the corresponding period of 2020.
Data released by the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) showed that the volume of electronic payment transactions increased by 80 percent year-on-year to 54.07 billion in the first quarter from 30.04 billion in the same period of last year.
As a result of the rise in e-payment transactions, income generated by banks via electronic channel transactions also increased by around 52 percent to N53.4 billion in the period under review compared with N35.2 billion in the same period of last year.
Bank customers patronised Mobile Money Operators (Mobile Inter-scheme) more in the period as transactions posted a 100 percent and 183 percent growth year-on-year both in volume and value of transactions respectively.
The volume of transactions rose to 486.36 million in the first quarter of 2021 from 244.16 million last year while the value of transactions increased to N1.29 trillion in Q1’21 from N451 billion in the corresponding period of 2020.
NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) transactions paired in volume growth and came second in value growth at 100 percent and 88 percent year-on-year increases respectively to 734 million and N58.85 trillion in Q1’21 from 366.9 million and N31.24 trillion in Q1’20.
Transaction through PoS also increased by 60 percent and 48 percent both in volume and value of transactions respectively in the period under review.
According to data supplied by NIBSS, the volume of PoS transactions increase to 223.45 million in the first three months of 2021 from 139.62 million a year earlier while the value of transactions rose to N1.49 trillion against N1.0 trillion posted in the first quarter of last year.
