Nigeria Hit High on Electronic Payment Transactions in 2020

According  to  Nigeria Interbank Settlement Instant Payment Systems and Point of Sales terminals. The volume of transaction processed in the year 2020 was N111.29Trillion. The financial inclusion awareness that POS terminals brought to unbanked Nigerians is a financial miracle. 2021 shall witness a rise in financial digital transaction. More grassroots commercial activities are experiencing the cashless transaction due to Point of Sale terminals. The Covid-19 pandemic has increase the use of POS and electronic payment system. Although cash is still the king but the awareness the electronic payment system brought is a welcome development at a time that security is a strong social issue in the Nigerian financial space. Credit and debit card penetration is still gathering momentum in the informal sector which has 60% of the currency in the circulation.

In a ranking of countries with credit card penetration, out of 137 countries Nigeria ranked 118^th. It is a welcome development considering the electronic financial journey of Nigeria. There is a huge awareness in the traditional market about POS and payment transfer. 2020 witness an increase in electronic payment on online retail store, 27% of online purchases were made with cards. Bank and cash transfers were the second most common payment method. Mobile banking had a surge in Nigeria and other African countries. It enabled customers to receive, store and send money using mobile phone. The service has many players, the banks, mobile money operators, telecom companies, and payment service providers. The customers of mobile banking increased to 15.3million and mobile bank agents rose to 266,000.

The total value of e-payment transactions in Nigeria amounted to 100 Trillion Naira. The number of POS payments rose from 34million to 348.6million. The value of money transfer per mobile app was over 2.6 Trillion Naira. Payment on delivery is another medium that helped digital transfer, shoppers use the account of the retailer and they pay via SMS and QR code. Nigeria has the highest number of mobile money users. The credit and debit penetration shall increase significantly in the rural areas.