he country has recorded N6.849tn worth of electronic fund transfers between January and September this year.
A document obtained by our correspondent on Wednesday from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System showed that NIBBS Instant Pay recorded an average volume of 1.13 million transactions so far, with a monthly transaction value of N761bn.
A N761bn monthly transaction value would have generated about N6.849tn for the first, second and third quarters of this year, all things being equal.
The document read in part, “The NIBSS Instant Pay has grown steadily since inception. NIP recorded an average volume of 1.13 million and transaction value of N761bn on a monthly basis during this period.
“This can be attributed to the reliability of the electronic funds transfer product, which has also increased product patronage.”
The document showed a steady growth in the volume of cheques processed in the second quarter of the year with June recording 19 per cent growth rate over the previous month.
“This can be attributed to the adoption of cheque truncation nation-wide. There was also a noticeable increase in the value of cheque transactions during the same period,” it added.
The document described the cash-less story in Lagos State as a successful one with a steady growth rate.
In the period under review, Point of Sale terminals recorded an average volume of 591,000 transactions on a monthly basis while the value of transactions also increased as the confidence level of customers in the payment device increased, it explained.
“This trend would likely continue once Value Added Services are deployed on PoS terminals and merchants earn incentives from accepting payments on the terminals,” the document stated.
The second phase of the cash-less policy started in July this year, with the Federal Capital Territory, Abia, Rivers, Anambra, Kano and Ogun states coming on board.
The Central Bank of Nigeria began the full implementation of its cash-less policy in these areas on Wednesday last week.
This followed the end of a three-month moratorium on the charges given to customers, who withdraw or deposit higher than the amount stipulated in the cash-less policy document.
The policy allows the CBN to peg the daily cumulative cash withdrawal or deposit limit for individual accounts at N500,000, while that of corporate accounts is fixed at N3m per day.
Commenting on the development, the Chief Executive Officer, Electronic Payment Providers Association of Nigeria, Mrs. Onajite Regha, said aside the six new locations coming on board, other states could apply for the implementation of the cash-less policy if they were convinced of their preparedness.
She said in the next one year, the CBN should be able to make the cash-less policy a nationwide thing given the current performance of the policy in Lagos.
According to her, to facilitate penetration, stakeholders in the process are looking at leveraging the potential of the Nigerian Postal Service to build a wider and reliable agency network.
Regha said training was ongoing even as EPPAN and other stakeholders were looking at enrolling more agents that would spread the cash-less agenda and also help more people to come on board.
The EPPAN CEO noted that the cash-less initiative was recording success and had continued to impact positively on Nigerians.
She said the policy had helped to reduce corruption in many quarters including government and businesses.
She said for any organisation to maximise revenue generation and collection, the cash-less idea must be brought to bear, as it was a strong anti-leakage agent.
BY STANLEY OPARA
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