Naira scarcity balloons epayment transactions value nearly 300% YoY
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Electronic payment transactions value rose 298 per cent year-on-year to N135.52 trillion in the first quarter of 2023 (Q1 2023) from N34.04 trillion in Q1 2022, spurred by naira scarcity which hampered social and economic activities.
The cash scarcity lasted more than two months, and was the fallout of the implementation of the Naira Redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which involved the redesign and release of N200, N500 and N1,000 naira notes.
The CBN also announced old notes would cease to be legal tender by January 31 this year but extended the deadline to February 10.
It withdrew from circulation more than N2 trillion of old notes but new notes were not widely available. It led to cash rationing by banks which Point of Sale (PoS) agents imposed exorbitant charges as high as 30 per cent of transaction value in some locations.
This compelled most Nigerians to adopt e-channels to pay for goods and services.
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e-payments in Nigeria rise 387%
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Transactions volume versus value
The latest e-payment data released by the Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System (NIBSS) shows the number (volume) of e-payment transactions hiked 984 per cent YoY from 433.4 million in Q1 2022 to 4.7 billion in Q1 2023 from 433.4 million
eTransactions value increased 298 per cent from N34.04 trillion in Q1 2022 to N135.52 trillion in Q1 2023, per reporting by Vanguard.
The value of e-payment transactions was N42.42 trillion in January 2023 but dropped 4.3 per cent to N40.6 trillion in February, from where it rose 34 per cent to N54.5 trillion in March.
The volume of e-payment transactions totalled 1.12 billion in January 2023, jumped 29 per cent to 1.45 billion in February, and shot up another 46 per cent to 2.13 billion in March.
NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) channel had the highest value of transactions with N123.72 trillion and the largest volume of transactions with 2.5 billion during the period.
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