Data released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) have shown that transactions done through Point of Sale (PoS) channels across Nigeria between January and May 2020 have been valued at N1.64 trillion.
This figure is N500 billion higher than the N1.14 trillion recorded for January – May 2019 and also the highest transaction value recorded under the same months since 2017.
The report also recorded an increase in the total volume of PoS transactions. Within the period under review, the volume increased from 152.6 million to 228.86 million.
This increase, reports say, is associated with the lockdown on economic activities enforced by the Federal Government to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic as financial institutions were closed while “essential” establishments were allowed to operate during the period.
Nigerians subscribed to services as such as medical services, food processing, distribution and retail companies, petroleum distribution and retail entities, power generation, transmission and distribution companies; and private security companies, which were considered as essential during the period.
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Also, the total PoS registered during the period under review increased from 1.3 million (2019) to 2.3 million in 2020.
Deployed PoS terminals also increased from 1.1 million(2019) to 1.7(2020) under the same period.
Meanwhile, the use of interbank instant payments on USSD platforms by bank customers received a boost, as transactions through NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) rose to N48.65 trillion, up from N41.48 trillion within the same period, implying that it rose by N7.17 trillion in five months.
The highest value of transactions recorded through NIP was recorded in March (N10.9 trillion) while the lowest was recorded in April (N7.01 trillion).
A further breakdown of the report shows that transactions done through mobile transfers (Mobile Inter-scheme Transactions) increased to N853.5 billion from N183.68 billion recorded within the same period in 2019.
The biggest mobile transfer recorded, according to the data, was done in May (N230.23 billion), compared to N133.21 billion in January 2020.
