Mobile Money Transactions Rose by 70% in February 2023
Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) data released has shown that the volume of mobile money transactions for the month of February 2023 rose by 70 percent to 183.69 million compared to 108.13 million recorded in the month of January 2023.
The latest data released by NIBSS showed that while the volume of transactions rose by 70 percent, the value of transactions rose by only 7.8 percent, from N2.37 trillion recorded in January 2023 to N2.55 trillion in February 2023.
The increased volume of transactions is directly linked to the scarcity of cash in the economy, forcing many citizens to use electronic payment channels to pay for their daily transactions.
The data advocates that more Nigerians used electronic channels such as bank applications and USSD to pay for items that normally would have been cash-based in the past. This could be a step toward the Central Bank of Nigeria’s goal of having a cashless economy, where most transactions are carried out electronically.
However, many users of electronic platforms experience a lot of failed transactions. In some cases, they do not even have access to their banking platforms, which poses a threat to running transactions in a cashless way.
Building a trustworthy payment system that efficiently speeds up transactions is crucial for implementing monetary policy and supporting economic efficiency. As a result of the introduction of mobile telephony in Nigeria, it is crucial to use the mobile channel to promote the financial inclusion of the unbanked.
Hence, the CBN would also need to strengthen the effectiveness of the bank-led model and non-bank-led model of conducting mobile transactions as the apex bank attempts to take safeguards that would minimize major network outages of mobile operators while transacting.
