THE Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, said the total value of electronic payment (e-payment) transactions in the country in 2016 rose to N74.9 trillion, up 33 percent from N56.3 trillion recorded in 2015.
In a report released, yesterday, titled: “2016 Annual Report of National Financial Inclusion Strategy implementation”, the apex bank also noted that the volume of transactions across the e-payment channels rose by 45.1 percent to 949.9 million, over 654.6 million recorded in 2015.
The report stated that Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) remained the most frequently used electronic channel with 590.2 million transactions in 2016.
“Though this was an increase of 36.1 percent relative to the 433.7 million ATM transactions in 2015, the ATM share of the total volume of electronic transactions declined from 66.3 per cent in 2015 to 62.1 per cent in 2016,” the report added.
The apex bank further noted that in terms of nominal value of electronic transactions, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Instant Payment, NIP, remained the channel through which transactions with the highest value in Naira were made in 2016.
The value of NIP transactions increased by 49.6 per cent from N25.5 trillion in 2015 to N38.2 trillion in 2016, which resulted in NIP accounting for 51 percent of the total value of electronic transactions in 2016.
CBN further stated: “The share of transactions made through NIP, in contrast, increased substantially from 10.9 per cent in 2015 to 16.3 per cent in 2016, while the absolute number of transactions through NIP grew from 71.2 to 154.5 million between 2015 and 2016.
“Other channels that experienced high growth rates in the number of transactions between 2015 and 2016 according to the report include: Point of Sale (88.9 per cent), Remita (97.0 per cent), and internet banking (76.5 per cent), which resulted in an increase of their respective shares of the total number of electronic transactions to 6.7, 4.0, and 1.5 per cent in 2016.
“The number of mobile money transactions only grew marginally by 7.1 per cent, similar to the 6.4 per cent-growth rate of the number of transactions made through Central Pay.
NEFT, cheques and E-Bills Pay recorded a negative growth of 12.6, 13.0, and 15.0 per cent, respectively, in the number of transactions in 2016, while NAPS, which was only introduced in 2015, experienced a growth of 323.3 per cent.
However, its share of the total volume of electronic transactions remained small at 0.4 per cent in 2016.”
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