Monthly instant payments, PoS deals drop to N19tn

The value of transactions via digital payment platforms – Nigeria Interbank Settlement System Instant Payment System and Point of Sales terminals – dropped to N18.99tn in January 2021.

According to data obtained from Nigeria Interbank Settlement System on Monday, the total value of NIP transactions grossed N18.50tn in January while PoS deals were worth N489.23bn during the same period.

The two platforms declined by 9.22 per cent in value of payments when compared to an aggregate  of N20.92tn in December 2020, with NIP transaction value at N20.34tn and PoS transaction value at N574.36bn.

The decrease could be as a result of the boost in spending association with the December festive period.

Compared to January 2020 however, the value of PoS transactions grew by 35.93 per cent in January 2021 as against N313.42bn recorded in the previous year; while value of NIP transactions saw a 44.37 per cent increase from a total value of N10.22tn in January 2020.

Similar to the value of NIP and PoS transactions, the total volume of NIP and PoS transactions also declined in January, the first drop in 10 and five months respectively.

In January, customers carried out a total volume of 228.76 million financial transactions on the instant payment platform, a 13.42 per cent decrease on the 264.22 million transactions recorded in December 2020.

The volume of transactions carried out using PoS machines dropped to 70.88 million in January, a 9.01 per cent decline from 77.90 million transactions registered in December 2020.

On the contrary, the total number of PoS deployed in the country increased to 475,494 in January from 459,285 recorded in December.

The volume of NIP transactions doubled in January 2021 with an increase of 51. 32 per cent from 111.34 million NIP transactions recorded in January 2020. Likewise PoS transaction volume saw a 41.73 per cent increase in January 2021 compared to 41.30 million Pos transactions in January 2020.

The value of mobile inter-scheme transactions saw a decline of 15.05 per cent as it dropped to N390.54bn in January from N459.76bn recorded in December 2020.

Likewise, the volume of mobile transactions fell by 11.93 per cent to record 14.91 million in January against 16.93 million in December.

Mobile transaction value increased by 65.88 per cent from N133.21bn reported in January 2020, while mobile transaction.

E-bills payment value saw a decrease of 15.38 per cent in January 2021 at N155.53bn from N183.8bn in the previous month.

There was however an increase in the volume of e-bills payment in the month under review. The volume of e-bills payment stood at 101,578, a 9.22 per cent increase from 92,207 in December 2020.

The e-bills payment volume was a 17.20 decrease from 122,685 recorded in January 2020 still. E-bills payment value rose by 40.35 per cent from N92.75bn in January 2020.

In summary, the report showed major declines across the digital channels transaction values and volumes with only an increase in volume of e-payments, which can be associated with increased spending during holiday seasons.

Between January 2020 and 2021, a major boost can be seen in the number of use and the amount transferred with the digital channels, except in the volume of e-bills payment transactions.