Transactions carried out through Point of Sale Channels increased from N1.14 trillion recorded between January and May 2019 to N1.64 trillion within the same period in 2020.
This was disclosed in a report released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).
According to the report, the total value of transactions from PoS machines rose by N500 billion, which represents a 43.8% increase in five months-the highest transaction value recorded under the same months since 2017.
The total volume of PoS transactions also increased from 152.6 million to 228.86 million within the period under review. This indicates that the volume increased by 76.26 million, or 49.9%.
The increase can be attributed to the lockdown imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic which made people patronize businesses that transact via PoS.
Also, financial institutions were shut while establishments which provide essential services were allowed to open.
There are also indications that Nigerians’ spending patterns increased within five months.
In the same vein, the use of interbank instant payments on USSD platforms by bank customers received a significant boost, as transactions through NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) rose to N48.65 trillion, up from N41.48 trillion within the same period.
This means transactions through NIP rose by N7.17 trillion in five months.
The highest value of transactions recorded through NIP was recorded in March (N10.9 trillion) while the lowest was recorded in April (N7.01 trillion).
A further breakdown of the report shows that transactions done through mobile transfers (Mobile Inter-scheme Transactions) increased to N853.5 billion from N183.68 billion recorded within the same period in 2019.
According to the data, the biggest mobile transfer recorded was done in May (N230.23 billion), compared to N133.21 billion in January 2020.
The latest report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which measures Nigeria’s spending pattern in both food and non-food items, revealed that of the total, 56.65% of the household expenditure was spent on food, with the balance of about 43.35 spent on non-food items. These and others are the items Nigerians purchase using PoS.
