Pos Transactions Value Soar To N1.1trn

Point of Sale (PoS) terminals had N1.15 trillion transactions value in March. The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) disclosed this in its latest report which also said the total value of electronic payments in March was N48.33 trillion, from N37.67 trillion in February.

NIBSS said more Nigerians depended on mobile devices for transactions – because of naira scarcity precipitated by the shoddy implementation of the naira design policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The usage of mobile financial devices surged 106.93 per cent month-on-month (MoM), prompting a 61.99 per cent increase in transactions value from N2.56 trillion in February to N4.14 trillion in March, according to the NIBSS.

More than half PoS operators nationwide had shut down by February due to scarcity of naira notes, new and old, exacerbated by a lack of fuel supply, another double whammy of afflictions unleashed by Muhammadu Buhari’s incompetence.

Hussein Olanrewaju, the National Chief Aggregating Officer of the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria, who disclosed the business closures, said naira shortage had worsened the plight of operators.

He canvassed for money agents to be given priority access to new notes, lamenting some Nigerians took advantage of the situation to charge unreasonable fees.

“Operators are licensed bodies that provide platforms which agents leverage on. Currently, agents do not have any preferential treatment to deliver this service, hence, more than 50 per cent of agent shops have been closed down as we speak.

“Some agents, however, go to the extreme to buy these monies and those who do not, move from one ATM point to another incurring a lot of cost in the process which will also reflect on the service charge,” Olanrewaju said.

“It’s worthy to note that some Nigerians have taken advantage of this situation to charge people unreasonable charges.” The Cable