Cheque transactions shrink by 39% as digital payments rise

The volume of cheques cleared by Nigerian banks keep shrinking as bank customers continue to embrace electronic payments for their financial transactions.

From January to September this year, the volume of cheques dropped by 39 per cent to 3.59 million compared with 5.88 million recorded in the industry in the same period last year, the latest data from the Nigerian Interbank settlement scheme has shown.

In addition, the value of cash withdrawals with cheques also suffered a 28 per cent decline from N3.37tn from January to September 2019 to N2.42tn in the same period this year.

Experts attribute this trend to the the growing dominance of fintech and adoption of innovations in digital payments by traditional banks.

Meanwhile, NIBBS statistics indicated that the use of digital financial transaction platforms continue to increase  as volume of Point of Sales,  Instant transfer and other electronic payment platforms continue to record double-digit growth.

In addition, industry statistics showed that the volume of transactions on PoS rose to 440.90 million in January to September 2020 from 309.04 million in the corresponding period in 2019, recording 43 per cent growth.

Analysis of the NIBSS data showed that the value of Point of Sales transactions also grew by 186 per cent to reach N6.4tn from January to September 2020 as against a total of N2.24tn recorded in the first nine months of 2019.

On the NIBSS Instant Payment platform, 67 per cent growth was recorded as the volume of transactions rose to 1.34 billion from January to September 2020, as against 803.15 million in the corresponding period in 2019.

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