Cashless transactions rise by 54.55% to ₦611.06 trillion - NIBSS

Fresh data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) has shown that the value of cashless transactions increased by 54.55% over 12 months from ₦395.38 trillion in 2022 to ₦611.06 trillion in 2023.

The NIBSS data revealed that the ₦611.06 trillion processed in 2023 included the total amount processed on the Nigeria Instant Payment System and Point of Sales terminals.

The total value of instant payments in 2023 was recorded as ₦600.36 trillion, while the Point of Sales transactions was ₦10.7 trillion and relied upon for 1.38 billion transactions.

Over the years, cashless transactions have grown as bank customers have turned to the option for transactions due to its ease. The growing adoption of electronic payment channels in Nigeria surged during the COVID-19 pandemic and has maintained its rise since then.

An NIBSS data showed that in 2022, cashless transactions in Nigeria rose by 42.05% to hit ₦395.47 trillion which means Nigerians used cashless forms of payment to process ₦117.07 trillion more than the ₦278.39 trillion that was processed in 2021.

A breakdown of the NIBSS data revealed customers used electronic payment channels a total of 11.05 billion times in 2023. This figure represents a 75.96% increase from the 6.28 billion times customers made us of the electronic channel in 2022.

The figure recorded for 2023 indicated an all-time high in terms of electronic transactions and also showed the wide acceptance of electronic payment channels and cashless transactions by Nigerians.

A further look at the e-payment data showed the highest value of cashless transactions was recorded in December 2023 hitting about ₦71.9 trillion.

There was also a 90% increase in the total volume of transactions processed during the year as it rose from 5.1 billion in 2022, to 9.7 billion in 2023.

Meanwhile an all-time high volume of e-payment volume was recorded in March 2023 with about 1.1 billion transactions. This occurred during the peak of the cash scarcity caused by the CBN Naira redesign policy.