Due to the growing influence of the cash-less policy, inter-bank fund transfers, instant payments and cheque transactions in the Nigeria Inter Bank Settlement Payment System Plc are now worth N2.1tn monthly.

The Central Bank of Nigeria, in a document made available to our correspondent on Thursday, confirmed that the NIBSS now handles the processing of 140,344 electronic fund transfer, instant payment and cheque transactions everyday.

The transactions are worth over N70.2bn.

The Head, Shared Services, CBN, Mr. Chidi Umeano, who confirmed the data, explained that the NIBSS was processing 6,749 instant payments worth N5.66bn; 99,602 electronic fund transfers worth N40bn; and 33,993 cheque transactions worth N24.7bn.

Analysts, who spoke with our correspondent, said the 4.2 million monthly transactions across the three e-channels were worth N2.1tn; adding that these were expected to increase as the cash-less scheme received more acceptance.

Experts, however, observed that cheque transactions were still low in the country, arguing that this might not be unconnected to the time it takes to clear cheques.

The Group Chief Executive, Clydestone, a Ghanaian transaction switching firm operating in Nigeria, Mr. Paul Jacquaye, urged the CBN to introduce cheque truncation to ensure that cheques were cleared in one day as it is being done in Ghana.

Jacquaye said “Cheque truncation means clearing a cheque in one day. Instead of a cheque having to travel from point A to B, the bank just images the cheque and sends it to clearing.

“In Ghana, we clear cheques in a day. Therefore, if you pay a cheque into your account today, by tomorrow you have the value. This is one of the advantages of going cash-less.”

According to him, it doesn’t matter where the cheque is drawn from; clearing is done in one day in Ghana through the truncation system.

It was gathered that Nigerian banks were considering deploying the kiosk solution, a new e-Payment channel to boost the cash-less system with the intention of matching the number of Automatic Teller Machines in the country with the new e-channel.

This, according to experts, means that banks will be deploying over 9,000 kiosk terminals as time goes on

Corroborating this, the Managing Director, Softworks Limited, a subsidiary of Telnet Group, a major supplier of Wincor Nixdorf ATMs in Nigeria, Mr. Iniabasi Akpan, said the kiosk was more like an ATM but does not dispense cash.

He explained that all the features and functionalities like statement printing, bill payment, fund transfer and mobile wallet top-up that could be done on the ATM apart from cash dispensing, could be moved down to the kiosk.

Source: Punch/Dayo Oketola