.as E-bills payment rises to N1.01trn
Bank account owners in Nigeria transferred a total of N1.89 trillion through their mobile devices between January and September this year, TechTrackAfrica reports. The value of the mobile transactions in the nine months represents a 311 per cent growth over N461 billion recorded in the same period of last year.
According to the e-payment data released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS), the amount transferred over mobile in the last nine months has surpassed the total value of mobile transfers recorded in the 12 months of 2019, which stood at N828 billion.
NIBSS data revealed that the volume of the mobile inter-scheme transactions also rose by 340 per cent from 20.01 million recorded between January and September 2019 to 88.2 million in the same period of 2020. While the surge in the use of mobile transfer for payment within the last nine months could also be attributed to coronavirus pandemic, which forced many to limit face-to-face transactions even before the declaration of lockdown in some states, industry analysts said the growth indicated that efforts to deepen financial inclusion by banks, fintech, and telecommunications companies are yielding positive results.
Analysis of the figures for the nine months showed that the sum of N133.2 billion was transferred via mobile in January this year. In February, transactions worth N148.3 billion were carried out over the mobile, while in March a total ofN169.8 billion was recorded as mobile transfers. In April, a total of N172 billion was transferred over mobile, while the figure stood at 230.2 billion in May. The steady increase in mobile transactions continued in June as the figure N245.9 billion, while the highest monthly value was recorded in July at N275 billion. In August, the value of mobile transfers stood at N253 billion while N268.8 billion was recorded in September.
Meanwhile, the NIBSS data showed that electronic payments through the various platforms made available by banks and facilitated by NIBSS sustained their gains in the period under review. For instance, the value of bills paid through the electronic channel rose to N1.01 trillion in the last nine months. Compared with N428.9 billion recorded in the same period of last year, this represented a 136 per cent growth year-on-year.
The E-Bills Pay is an account-based, online real-time product that facilitates the payment of bills from an account. It ensures instant credit of payments and receipt of collections on behalf of Billers/Merchant recruited on the platform. Currently, the platform is used for payments such as utility bills, cable TV subscriptions, hotel and airline bookings, school fees and airtime top-up.
According to data released by NIBSS, more Nigerians are now embracing payment of bills electronically as opposed to paying with cash. With this, the value of bills paid between January and September this year has exceeded the value recorded throughout 2019, which was N652 billion.
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