Nigerians Spend N6.4 Trillion on POS Transactions on Christmas in 2021
- Nigerians splurged over N6 trillion on POS transactions for the month of December 2021 alone being the highest ever recorded
- Data shows that POS transactions in December witnessed close to N7 billion which is a 50 per cent increase
- POS transaction was introduced in 2012 as a response to the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
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Despite complaints of cash crunch and a bad economy, Nigerians splurged a whopping N4.6 trillion various Point of Sales (POS) transactions in 2021 Christmas alone.
In recent data released by Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System (NIBSS), POS transactions increased in December to N699.75 billion, being the highest ever documented in a single month.
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In recent data released by Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System (NIBSS), POS transactions increased in December to N699.75 billion, being the highest ever documented in a single month.
POS transactions in the country spiked by 50 per cent to 982.8 million in 2021 in comparison to 655.8 million transactions documented in the previous year, according to a report by Nairametrics.
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Also, Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) reveals that POS adoption has increased greatly since it was introduced as an answer to the cashless economy policy introduced by the CBN in 2012. That year, POS transactions stood at N46.86 billion.
Benefits of COVID-19
NIBSS data shows a great leap in POS transactions in the month of December since 2017. This shows a pattern for Nigerians’ spending during festive periods.
The acceptance of digital financial services has spiked in the past decade and has grown since the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria. This forced Nigerians to make payments from home.
Traditional methods of payment like cheques have been on a decline since the cashless policy came into Nigeria in 2012. In 2021, about N3.22 trillion cheque transactions were recorded, which is a slight decline in comparison to N3.27 trillion recorded in the previous year.
Desperate Nigerians go into POS business
Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that They are seen in every square foot space, even in cities with robust banking services. Close proximity to each other doesn’t matter to them. “It is a survival of the fittest in this business,” Ope Ogedengbe, who operates agency banking, otherwise known as POS business, said.
For every N10, 000 withdrawn or deposited, the agents charge between two to three per cent. But the commission charges vary based on the location of the operators. For those operating in rural areas, the charges are as much as five to 10 per cent, findings by this newspaper can reveal.
Agency banking known in Nigerian local parlance as POS business because of their use of Point of Sale (POS) machines, is relatively new in Nigeria, which many have taken up as means of survival, although the operators complain that the returns are low and that they are in the business just to have something to do and not that it is profitable.
Source: Legit.ng
