The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) announced on Wednesday that cashless transactions in Nigeria surged to N611.06 trillion in 2023, representing a remarkable 54.55% year-on-year growth from N395.38 trillion at the end of 2022. This increase in payments reflects a growing preference for digital transactions in the country.
The NIBSS Instant Payments, established in 2011, is an account-number-based, online real-time inter-bank payment solution widely adopted in the Nigerian financial industry. It ensures instant value transfer to the beneficiary and has been integrated by Nigerian banks across various channels, including internet banking, bank branches, kiosks, mobile apps, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), point of sale (POS), and ATMs.
Data analysis from NIBSS revealed that electronic payment channels were utilized 11.05 billion times in 2023, marking a substantial 75.96% increase compared to the 6.28 billion transactions in 2022. The total value of instant payments reached N600.36 trillion, with point of sale transactions contributing N10.7 trillion and being relied upon for 1.38 billion transactions.
This surge in electronic transactions, hitting an all-time high, indicates a growing acceptance of cashless payments among Nigerians. The data also revealed a consistent increase in e-payment activities throughout the year, with December 2023 witnessing the highest value as Nigerians spent a total of N71.9 trillion over electronic channels during the festive period.
The NIBSS data further highlighted that the volume of transactions processed by NIBSS increased significantly from 5.1 billion in 2022 to 9.7 billion in 2023, representing a remarkable 90% year-on-year growth. Monthly breakdowns showed varying values, with N38.9 trillion spent on electronic platforms in January 2023, N48.3 trillion in March driven by cash scarcity, and a continuous upward trend in subsequent months.
Notably, the value of NIP transactions reached N51 trillion in September, reflecting the sustained momentum of digital transactions in the country. The data also emphasized a peak in e-payment volume at 1.1 billion in March 2023, during a period when Nigerians faced cash scarcity and turned to electronic channels for transactions.
