Cheques for many years have been the only option to cash in the economy. However cheques have not been acceptable to merchants because of corruption and the resultant mistrust that it creates. Incidence of bounce cheques was very high making merchants cautious in accepting cheques. This was also because of a lack of an electronic means of verifying valid cheques. Part of the problem was also the poor interconnection of banks and a lack of an electronic cheque clearing system. However, today banks have their branches interconnected together.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has also introduced inter-bank electronic cheque clearing system which has greatly reduced the time it takes to verify and redeem cheques. Despite these positive developments the fate of paper cheques in the economy seems to have been sealed. For any payment system to be able to replace cash (or at least compete with it) it must win the trust of merchants in the economy. For this to happen their must be a way for merchants to verify the validity of the purchase. The payment solution must also be easily convertible to cash or as good as cash, since most merchants in Nigeria are in business on subsistence basis. Their must be a way to use the money they made for the day to buy what they need for the day or for the following day. This is where e-payment or e-transactions solutions come in. These payment solutions target most of the concerns of merchants and more.
However, despite its advantages e-payment solutions have not gained much ground. However, it is our hope that the effort by CBN to make Nigeria a cashless or cash-lite economy will work. Core to that is the introduction of a daily deposit/withdrawal limit and focus towards e-payment solutions like mobile money and debit cards. ATM leads to more cash The Automated Teller Machine (ATM) is the most popular etransaction solution in Nigeria.
ATM is popular because of its convenience. With ATM, it is a lot easier to withdraw money or to check account balance. However, despite its popularity the ATM has done very little in reducing the amount of cash in the economy. This is because most Nigerians use ATM only for cash withdrawal. Although ATM machines can perform other functions like fund/cash transfer, mobile phone credit recharge and bills payment, cash withdrawals and balance inquiry remain the most popular applications sort after by users in Nigeria.
There is high demand to educate the citizens (merchants and card holders) on the benefits of electronic payment. There is need to educate Nigerians on how to use ATM, debit and credit cards to reduce the phobia for such technologies. For these reasons we are fully out to train interested persons in core ATM repairs and maintenance servicing, multi-platform mobile and web application development. Enrol now, benefits cannot be overemphasized.
Banks are staying competitive and driving growth by providing innovative alternate payment channels to customers.
Take advantage of this and align yourself with the benefits of providing ATM, mobile and web based transaction solution.
The Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) says the Nigeria’s electronic payment (e-payment) services, recorded transactions worth N56.85 trillion from January to September, 2018.
The report showed an increase of N16.4 trillion when compared to the N40.45 trillion that was recorded in the corresponding period of 2017.
It also showed that most of the electronic transactions were done through the NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP), Point of Sale (PoS), Automated Transfer Machines (ATMs), Mobile Money, Electronic Bills Payment (E-Bills) and Web payments.
A breakdown of the report showed that ATMs transactions grew from N4.61 trillion in 2017 to N4.76 trillion at the end of the third quarter of 2018.
Also, the volume of transactions on ATMs under the period in review grew from 560.86 million in 2017, to 650.06 million in 2018.
Similarly, the volume of transactions carried out by Nigerians, using mobile money rose from N795.18 billion in 2017, to N1.22 trillion as at Sept, 2018.
Also, using the web payment channel, the total value of transactions under the review period rose from N129.24 billion in 2017, to N183.07 billion in 2018.
Report shows a rise in the use of e-transaction machines, ATMs, POS, web apps and mobile apps to carry out payments by Nigerians. The report also showed an increased awareness and use of technology by individuals and businesses in the country.
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