Charles Abuede
Payments of utility bills and subscriptions for various digital channels cost Nigerians and foreigners living in the country N444.16 billion in the first five months of 2020, it has emerged.
Latest data by the Nigerian Interbank Settlement Scheme (NIBSS), and accessed by Business A.M. revealed that the use of digital financial transaction platforms for the payment of tax, electricity, toll fees, cable television subscriptions, bookings for hotels, airtime top-ups and schools fees, amongst others has been the auxiliary channel for Nigerians during the lockdown and the periods afterwards.
The data show that the figure obtained within the first five months of 2020 reflects about 86 per cent increase from the N238.81 billion recorded during the corresponding period of 2019. This, however, shows that payment of bills electronically rose almost two folds from January to May this year, compared with the same period in 2019.
With a 30 per cent decline in the volume of electronic payment channels, the data revealed that between January and May 2020, the total volume of e-bill payments dropped to 373,652 from 530,941 when compared with the corresponding period under review, as bills payment are usually fulfilled via several digital platforms which include the point of sales (PoS) terminals, mobile apps, the NIBSS instant payment platform and USSD channels from banks.
On a year-to-date analysis of the data, January 2020 recorded bills valued at N92.75 billion and accounts for about 86 per cent increase from N49.76 billion paid online in January 2019. Meanwhile, during the month of February 2020, e-bills valued at N78.38 billion were recorded, signifying 74 per cent growth from N44.95 billion e-bills values paid in February 2019.
Similarly, March experienced a boom in the value of e-bills paid via digital transaction platforms with a growth of about 128 per cent from N46.93 billion obtained in the same month in 2019 to a peak of N107.06 billion in March 2020. This rise can be attributed to the speculative feeling coming from the imminent lockdown occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic earlier in March 2020.
April recorded a 79 per cent growth in the value of bills payment online to N85.67 billion from N47.86 billion documented during the corresponding month of 2019. May recorded total bills worth N80.29 billion paid digitally, up from N49.31 billion from May 2019. This amount for May represents a 65 per cent rise when compared with the corresponding months.
