Electronic payment transactions in Nigeria rose to $702.6 billion (N1.07 quadrillion) in 12 months ended December 31, 2024, report from the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) has shown.
The e-payment data, reached  an all-time high and the first time to hit the quadrillion mark. The N1.07 quadrillion, is equivalent to  $702.6 billion, when converted to dollar at the exchange rate of N1,535/$1 on December 31, 2024.
According to NIBSS industry statistics on e-payment report posted on its website, the value recorded on the NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) represents a 79.6 per cent increase over the N600 trillion recorded in 2023.
Although the e-payment data shows a steady increase throughout the 12 months of the year, the highest value was achieved in December 2024 because of the high level of business transactions within the month.
Being a festive period with lots of spending activities, Nigerians spent a total of N115.1 trillion over electronic channels in December 2024.
This came as the all-time high monthly record on the NIBSS electronic payment platform.
Also, the volume of transactions processed by NIBSS for the year also jumped from 9.7 billion in 2023 to 11.2 billion in 2024. This represents a 15.5 per cent rise in the volume of electronic transactions year on year.
Stakeholders insists that the surge in e-payment transactions can be linked to the recent cash crunch experience and the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) limiting the amount of cash that can be withdrawn daily.
The e-payment transactions are usually carried out through cheques, Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), Point of Sale (PoS), m-Cash, CentralPay, Remita, Nigeria Interbank Instant Payment (NIBSS) Instant Payment (NIP), mobile money, among other channels.
The e-payment powers were conferred on the CBN by Sections 2 (d) and 47 (2) of the CBN Act, 2007, to promote and facilitate the development of efficient and effective systems for the settlement of transactions, including the development of electronic payment systems.
While pushing for the full use of the e-payment system, the CBN said for Nigeria to actively play at the world stage, “our payment system must be successfully benchmarked against the global best practices, as in most developed nations of the world.
It said e-payment provides safe and efficient mechanisms for making and receiving payments with minimum risks to the CBN, payment service providers and end-users.
To make the e-payment vision a success, the CBN, in collaboration with key stakeholders in the payments community, developed the National Payments Systems Vision 2020 (NPSV 2020). The NPSV 2020 is a sub-set of the Financial Systems Strategy 2020 (FSS 2020).
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