Banking sector records N32.90trn e-payment in Q2

*As ATM dominates volume of transactions with N1.6bn
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed that total value of Electronic payment channels in the Nigeria banking sector has increased to N32.90 trillion in second quarter of 2018.

The statistics office in its ‘Selected Banking Sector Data: Sectoral Breakdown of Credit, Electronic payment Channels and Staff Strength,’ also said that Automated Teller Machine (ATM) dominated the volume of transactions recorded.

According to the NBS, banking sector credit to private sector stood at N15.34 trillion as at second quarter of 2018, Oil & Gas and manufacturing sectors record the highest credit allocation as at the period under review.

The report stated that, “A total volume of 509,668,433 transactions valued at N32.90 trillion were recorded in Q2 2018 as data on Electronic Payment Channels in the Nigeria Banking Sector revealed.

“ATM transactions dominated the volume of transactions recorded. 217,417,961 volume of ATM transactions valued at N1, 603 billion were recorded in second quarter of 2018”.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in its 2017 annual report disclosed that the volume and value of payment on different channels (comprising ATM, PoS, Mobile and Internet) rose by 43.2 and 37.6 per cent to 1,023.6 million and N9, 134.0 billion, respectively, compared with 715.1 million and N6, 636.4 billion recorded in the preceding year.

“A breakdown of e-payment transactions for 2017 indicated that the ATM remained the most patronised, accounting for 78.2 per cent, followed by PoS terminals and mobile payments with 14.3 and 4.7 per cent, respectively.

“The web (internet) was the least patronised, accounting for 2.8 per cent of the total. In terms of value, the ATM accounted for 70.5 per cent, PoS, 15.4 per cent; mobile channels, 12.1 per cent; and web (internet), 2.0 per cent.”

The CBN had attributed rise in e-payment transactions to increased consumer confidence and awareness in the use of the e-payment channels.

However, on the NBS report for second quarter, the report stated that credit to private sector by the bank stood at N15.34 trillion as at second quarter of 2018.

According to NBS, “Oil & Gas and Manufacturing sectors got credit allocation of N3.45 trillion and N2.02 trillion to record the highest credit allocation as at the period under review.

“As at second quarter of 2018, the total number of banks’ staff increased by 13.67per cent Quarter on Quarter from 89,608 in first quarter of 2018 to 101,861 in second quarter of 2018.”