Mobile Money Transactions Volume Rose by 70% in Feb

Nume Ekeghe

Data released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) has shown that the volume of mobile money transactions for the month of February, rose by 70 per cent to 183.69 million compared to 108.13 million recorded in the month of January.

The latest data released by NIBSS showed that while the volume of transactions rose by 70 percent value of transactions rose by 7.8 percent.

Volume had risen from 108.13 million transactions with a value of N2.37 trillion in January, to 183.69 million transactions with a value of N2.55 trillion.

 The data suggested that more Nigerians used electronic channels such as bank applications and USSD to pay for items that normally would have been cash-based.

The data showed that while the volume of NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) rose by 45.5 per cent last month, the value of transactions consummated via the channel declined by 5.12 per cent.

The February NIP data showed that as against 541.65 million transactions that were done via NIP in January, valued at N38.77 trillion, the February NIP channel recorded 787.93 million transactions with a value of N36.78 trillion.

When compared to the data recorded in the comparable period of 2022, the NIP recorded a significant increase in volume, which was up by 121 per cent, while value rose by 35.32 per cent. In February last year, NIP transactions stood at 355.61 million transactions valued at N27.18 billion.

Similarly, transactions consummated via point of sale (PoS) terminals rose last month. According to the NIBSS statistics, the volume of PoS transactions rose by 17.8 per cent while value of transactions on the channel rose by 9.4 per cent.

 At the end of February, a total of 113.53 million valued at N883.45 billion was recorded, as against the 96.35 million transactions valued at 807.16 billion that was recorded in January this year.

 Also, the PoS channels’ figure for February this year, showed a 27.7 and 53.6 per cent increase in the value and value of transactions compared to the comparable period of 2022. In February last year, the channel had recorded 88.9 million transactions valued at N575.96 billion.

The increased volume in transactions was not unconnected to the scarcity of cash in the economy which forced many citizens to resort to using electronic payment channels to pay for their daily transactions.