Bank customers carried out a total of N11.44tn worth of financial transactions on the Point of Sales and Instant payment and electronic bills platforms in March, the latest data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System have shown.
This shows a 34 per cent growth from the NIP, PoS and e-Bills figures of N8.54tn recorded in 2019.
Analysis of the data indicated that the customers carried out a total of N10.97tn worth of financial transactions on the instant payment platform in March 2020.
The instant payments were carried out by bank customers via bank branches, Internet banking, mobile apps, Automated Teller Machines and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data.
In addition, the PoS payments valued at N368.86bn were conducted within the same period.
The NIBSS data showed that electronic bill payments worth N107.06bn were conducted in the month under review.
Some of the bills paid by bank customers online were electricity bills, cable TV subscriptions, Internet services subscription and utility bills.
The NIBSS data showed that a total volume of online payment deals via the PoS, and NIP platform were 187.63 million in March this year.
This represents a 59 per cent increase in the volume of transactions on the three platforms, compared with 117.84 million recorded in 2019.
Further analysis showed that the value of the PoS transactions grew by 70 per cent from N217.46bn in March 2019 to N368.86bn in March this year.
The volume of the PoS deals also increased by 75 per cent to 52.25 million in March compared with 29.82 million transactions recorded in the corresponding period in 2019.
The banking industry data indicated that NIP deals had a 28 per cent improvement in terms of the value of transaction when compared to the same period in 2019, when NIP deals amounted to N8.58tn.
The volume of NIP deals also increased by 54 per cent to 135.3 million in March 2020, compared with 87.94 million transactions recorded in the corresponding month in 2019.
The NIBSS data showed that the value of electronic bills deals also increased by 128 per cent to N107.06bn in March, compared with the corresponding period in 2019 when payments were worth N46.93bn.
Checks showed that March had the highest PoS and instant payments in value and volume in the first quarter of the year.
This could be as a result of the closure of many bank branches as a result of the lockdown and the restriction being implemented in many states to reduce the spread of coronavirus in the country.
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), had announced on a total lockdown of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Lagos and Ogun states, effective 11pm on Monday, March 30, in order to slow down the spread of coronavirus.
He asked all businesses and offices in the three regions with the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases to shut down for 14 days and residents stay indoors.
Buhari extended the lockdown for another 14 days beginning from Tuesday.
NIP payments valued at N10.3tn and with a volume of 111.35 million were carried out by bank customers in January this year, while in February 2020, NIP deals worth N9.97tn with a volume of 120.26 million were executed on the NIBSS platform.
For the PoS payments, the NIBSS reported 41.31 million and 46.07 million deals in January and February this year, as well as the PoS payments worth N313.43bn and N326.03bn in January and February respectively.
Similar to NIP and the PoS transactions, electronic bills peaked in March at N107.06bn, compared to N92.76bn in January and N78.38bn in February this year.
— Punch