The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) has disclosed that the total value of instant payments in 2023 reached a staggering N600.36 trillion, marking a significant surge from the previous year.
Instant payment, an account-based, real-time electronic funds transfer platform, witnessed a remarkable increase of 55 percent or N213.29 trillion compared to 2022, according to NIBSS data.
In 2022, a total of N387.07 trillion was recorded as instant payments (NIP), reflecting the notable growth trajectory seen in electronic transactions.
The surge in instant payments was accompanied by an uptick in transaction volume, reaching an all-time high of 1.1 billion in March 2023, albeit slightly declining to 968.59 billion by the end of the year.
NIBSS attributed the surge in transaction volume in March to the naira scarcity experienced nationwide, prompting increased adoption of electronic payment channels by Nigerians.
Moreover, cashless transactions witnessed a substantial surge, reaching N611.06 trillion in 2023, representing a 54.55 percent increase or N215.68 trillion compared to the previous year’s N395.38 trillion.
The data further revealed a significant rise of 75.96 percent (11.05 billion transactions) in the use of electronic payment channels throughout 2023.
Point of sales (PoS) channels were utilized 1.38 billion times, facilitating transactions worth N10.7 trillion in 2023. Additionally, mobile money operators (MMOs) such as Opay, Palmpay, Moniepoint, and Kuda recorded N46.6 trillion in transactions, marking a substantial increase from N19.4 trillion in 2022 — a rise of 140 percent.
NIBSS data also highlighted a remarkable surge in the volume of mobile money transactions, skyrocketing by 326 percent in 2023, with the volume reaching 3.04 billion compared to 714 million recorded in 2022.
