As a direct consequence of the cash-less regime, electronic fund transfer, instant payment and cheque transactions via the Nigeria Inter Bank Settlement Payment System Plc are now worth over N70.2bn daily.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, which disclosed this in a document made available to our correspondent on Tuesday, said the amount was derived from 140,344 daily transactions.
The Head, Shared Services, CBN, Mr. Chidi Umeano, who delivered a paper during the 5th West African Convergence Forum, said the value of the daily NIBBS instant payment was N5.66bn from 6,749 transactions.
The value of the daily non-cash transactions via the NIBBS electronic fund transfer, according to him, is about N40bn from 99,602 transactions.
He added that the value of the 33,993 cheques processed by the NIBBS daily was now N24.7bn.
When added together, a whopping sum of N70.2bn transacted on three e-transaction channels was processed by the NIBBS on a daily basis as at February 21, 2012.
Stressing the need to embrace electronic payment channels in the cash-less economic system, Umeano lamented that cash transactions still represented over 99 per cent of customer activities in banks across the country.
According to him, ATM withdrawals account for 109.5 million; over-the-counter cash withdrawals, 72.4 million transactions; cheques, 29 million; Point of Sale terminals, over one million; and web transactions, over 2.7 million transactions.
However, the CBN chief said the cash-less scheme was gaining acceptance from all stakeholders, including bank customers, adding that increased transactions would be recorded on other e-transaction channels such as the PoS, mobile money and the web as time went on.
“The cash-less society project is gaining attraction, especially with support from the Federal Government and the state of Lagos. All stakeholders are galvanised in ensuring a success of the programme, and CBN, at the top level, maintains an active engagement with all to ensure seamless transition to our desired cash-less society,†Umeano said.
He disclosed that the 14 mobile payment operators licensed in August 2011 by the CBN had also recorded 35,971 transactions worth N227.92m as at January this year.
“Fourteen mobile payment operators licensed in August 2011 recorded 35,971 transactions valued at N227.92m ($1.4m) in January 2012. This is expected to grow geometrically as awareness increases,†he said.
Emphasising how deep the cash-less system had become, Umeano said about 72,960 PoS terminals, which would run on MTN and Glo networks, had been injected into the system he added that the CBN had sealed agreements with the network providers to ensure 99 per cent uptime since both channels would serve as backup to each other.
He said deployed and active PoS had grown from 5,300 as at June 2011 to 18,874 as at March 4, 2012 Umeano stressed that another 54,086 PoS terminals, up from 31,052, had been registered.
According to him, 71,143 PoS have been ordered from October 2011 to date, while registered merchants stood at 69,750 as at March 16, 2012.
He explained that with the cash-less policy, the CBN would accelerate PoS density in the country to 2,247 per 100,000 people this year.
According to the CBN, the PoS density per 100,000 people in Nigeria is currently 13, while India is 67; Uganda, 453; Namibia, 338; Malaysia, 1,063; and South Africa, 1,063.
The target for Nigeria, however, is to meet Brazil’s PoS deployment rate of 2,247 per 100,000 people by 2015.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Interswitch, Mr. Mitchell Elegbe, had said that the cash-less policy would drive transaction processing for banks and other financial services beyond N2.4tn in 2012.
This, he said, would be accelerated by the increased number of Nigerians using electronic modes of payment for their transactions such as payment of utility bills, taxes and banking payments.
Elegbe had said in a recent interview with our correspondent that the cash-less economic policy aimed at encouraging electronic-based payments and reducing the amount of physical cash in circulation, was expected to drive PoS transactions by well over 200 per cent in 2012.
Source: Punch/Dayo Oketola
