BY ROSEMARY IWUALA
Nigerians’ use of mobile channels for payment increased by 3,454.46 percent from N136.85bn during the first four months of 2019 to N4.86trn in the corresponding period of 2022, data from the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) show.
The growth followed the 13.98 percent increase in the number of telecommunications subscribers in the country from 176.62 million in April 2019 to 201.31 million in the same month of 2022.
Data from the mobile inter-scheme portal of the NIBSS show a rapid growth in the value of mobile transactions, which began during the pandemic.
The report indicates that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic brought about a mass and accelerated adoption of mobile e-payments methods.
It further stated that mobile devices drove payment in 2020, accounting for 43 percent of total transactions in the same year, with 35 percent of transactions done via USSD, and 78 percent of total transfer transactions.
According to the NIBSS, mobile transactions increased from N136.85bn in 2019 to N623.47bn in 2020, N1.78trn in 2021, and N4.86trn in 2022.
Data from the mobile inter-scheme transaction portal show that in the same period under review, the usage of mobile channels for payments increased by 3,406.95 percent from 4.36 million times to 152.99 million times.
