Mobile Transactions Rise By N8.9tn In Three Years

Mobile transactions have risen by N8.981 trillion between the first seven months of 2019 and the corresponding period of 2022.
According to the data released from the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System, mobile transactions have risen from N289.12bn to N9.27tn.
However, this happened due to the value of cheque transactions which fell by 31.42 per cent, from N2.67tn in January to N1.83tn in July 2019 in the corresponding period of 2022.
According to the report, the growth in the use of mobile payment gateways began to surge in 2020 due to COVID-19, while the decline in the use of cheques also began around the same time.
Within the first seven months of 2019, the value of the cheques cleared was N2.67tn, in 2020 it declined to N1.86tn, and N1.85tn in 2021, before maintaining its steady decline in 2022 at N1.83tn.
The NIBSS asserted that in its ‘Instant Payments 2020 Annual Statistics,’ mobile devices drove electronic payment in 2020 as they accounted for 43 per cent of total transactions. It added that 35 per cent of the transactions were with USSD and 78 per cent of total transfer transactions were done using mobile devices.
According to the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta, the benefit of financial service riding on telecom infrastructure was the provision of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data as it had brought ease to financial transactions.
Within the time under review, the number of active GSM subscribers increased from 173.63 million in January 2019 to 206.08 million in June 2022.
GSMA, the global body for telecommunication companies, in its mobile money industry report for 2021, noted that “while 2020 saw unparalleled challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the mobile money industry witnessed strong efforts in striving towards cashless societies, entering strategic partnerships to expand the horizons of digital payments and developing new and robust interoperable payment systems.”