Latest official data obtained by New Telegraph provides information on the bank customers’ activities on the various payment platforms, including PoS, mobile transfers, National Electronic Fund Transfers (NEFT) and NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP), among others.
According to the study, between January and April this year, the value of PoS transactions increased from N46.65 billion to N53.28 billion. In February and March, the transaction values were N46.14 billion and N51.96 billion respectively. Deals values this year have been higher when compared with the value of monthly transactions recorded in the first four months of 2015. Last year, aggregate PoS transaction value for the first four months of the year stood at N130.74 billion, with a breakdown of N31.79 billion in January; N30.79 billion in February; N33.54 billion in March and N34.62 billion at the end of April.
The report thus indicates that the cardholders are doing more transactions on the PoS terminals across the country, a development, which experts linked to increased public confidence in the e-payment system. “More and more people are beginning to be more aware of the importance and efficiency of adopting an electronic payment platform such as PoS for payment when they go shopping,” said the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Secretary of the Electronic Payment Providers Association of Nigeria (E-PPAN), Mrs. Regha Onajite, said on phone.
In 2015, Nigerians transacted N448 billion on some 62,000 active PoS terminals deployed across the country, according to the NIBSS report. Further analysis of the report showed that PoS recorded an average of N1.5 billion daily transactions throughout last year. In January 2015, PoS transactions stood at N31.7 billion; in February, the transaction as N30.9 billion and by March, the figure had increased to N33.5 billion monthly.
Also in April, May and June, the value of PoS deals executed by some of the 42 million Automated Teller Machine (ATM) holders stood at N34.6 billion; N35.9 billion and N34 billion respectively. The PoS transactions increased to N36.9 billion in July; but slightly dropped to N35.8 billion in August and further regained its growth momentum in September with transaction seating at N39.6 billion.
The country recorded its highest PoS transaction volume and value in the last quarter of 2015 with transactions standing at N41.5 billion; N40.2 billion and N53.4 billion in October, November and December respectively. However, last January, the PoS business by Nigerians dropped to N46.6 billion.
The NIBSS report also provides information on the number of PoS registered and those deployed, from which the industry has active and dormant PoS terminals. According to the report, while these are 141, 787 PoS registered terminals only 119,126 have been deployed while less than 100 of the deployed are actually being used for services.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had set a 350,000 PoS deployment target for the country but has not been able to achieve this auspicious target, in spite of the increase in the number of Payment Terminal Service Providers (PTSPs) licensed.
PTSPs are the companies licensed by the apex bank to deploy PoS terminals for merchants on behalf of the banks. The idea of PTSP was conceived to allow the banks to focus on their core banking services without bothering themselves with the deployment of PoS for merchants.
Till date, the apex bank in a bid to deepen cashless economy in the country, has licensed no fewer than 19 terminal operators. They include Global Accelerex Limited, Citiserve Limited, Interswitch Limited, ITEX Integrated Systems, Top Limited, Paymaster Limited, Globasure Technologies Limited, Signal Sources Nigeria Limited, Bizzdesk Global Solutions Limited, Callphone Limited and Cloud Systems Limited.
Others include TITIS /Goswiff Limited, Nera Networks Nigeria Limited, Electronic Settlement Limited, Computer Warehouse Group Plc, Inlaks Computers Limited, Easyfuel Limited, Emerging Markets Telecommunication Services Limited and Ameya Infocom Limited.
However, despite the boost in the number of PTSPs, the country could not achieve its set target of 350,000 PoS terminals deployment by end of last year. Poor connectivity and initial apathy on the part of customers to quickly adopt e-payment platform also discourages merchants from using PoS as a means of accepting payment from customers. Reacting, the Chief Executive Officer of NIBSS, Mr. Adebisi Shonubi, said the success so far recorded was still commendable, saying the e-payment sector is gaining traction.
“The increase in volume and value of consumer transactions carried out via PoS is indicative of growing acceptance and use of the payment channel, attributable to sustained public awareness,” he added. Meanwhile, the President of Medallion Communications Limited, a technology-neutral interconnect clearing company in the nation’s telecoms company, Mr. Ike Nnamani, pointed out that encouraging widespread access to quality broadband penetration will accelerate deployment of more PoS terminals.
