Due to the cash crunch associated with the implementations of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) Naira redesign policy in the first quarter of this year, mobile transactions have continued to gain traction as total transfers through mobile platform surged rose to N4.1 trillion in March this year.
The mobile transactions in the month represented a 215% increase of over N1.3 trillion recorded in the month in 2021 and the highest-ever monthly transactions recorded on the mobile platform in the nation’s financial system.
According to the latest electronic transactions data released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS), the volume of mobile transactions also increased by 794% in the month totalling 380 million compared with the 42.5 million recorded in the same month last year.
As expected, the value of the NIBSS Instant Payments (NIP) in the month under review also surged by 52% to N48.3 trillion, up from N31.8 trillion recorded in March 2022.
An analysis of the transactions on a month-on-month basis showed that the NIP increased by 31% when compared with the N36.8 trillion recorded in February while the volume of NIP transactions rose by 192% year-on-year to 1.1 billion, up from 402 million in March of last year.
Analysts believe that the increase in mobile transactions despite the policy measures by the CBN and government to boost currency in circulation is not unconnected with the inability of the deposit money banks (DMBs) and other financial institutions (OFIs) to meet customers’ cash withdrawal demands.
Assessment of the banks’ operations even after the apex bank had directed them to ensure cash payments to customers showed that they were still contending with operational challenges to meet customers’ cash withdrawal expectations.
As a result of the lender’s lapses, queues are still noticeable in most cities as customers still wait for cash withdrawals for hours, in some cases, just as most of the DMBs have configured their ATMs to pay limited cash to people that are not their direct customers.
