The value of transactions done across Point of Sale (PoS) channels in Nigeria increased from N1.14 trillion recorded between January and May 2019 to N1.64 trillion within the same period in 2020.
This was disclosed in the latest data released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS). The report implies that the total value of transactions from PoS machines rose by N500 billion, which represents a 43.8% increase in five months.
The total volume of PoS transactions also increased from 152.6 million to 228.86 million within the period under review. This indicates that the volume increased by 76.26 million, or 49.9%.
What does it mean?
The development implies that Nigerians spent more using PoS, which reflects spending patterns of Nigerians via merchant outlets such as restaurants, supermarkets, retail markets and shops, shopping malls, etc than they did since 2017 (January – May alone).
The increasing trend persisted between January and May 2020, except for April when it dropped to N272 billion for obvious reasons. The total volume of payment transactions across Nigerian payment channels fell by a whopping 26% in April compared to the preceding month. The Nigerian government imposed a lockdown on economic activities in the commercial cities of Lagos, Abuja and Ogun States between March and April.
However, there are indications that Nigerians’ spending patterns increased within five months. The latest report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which measures Nigeria’s spending pattern in both food and non-food items, revealed that of the total, 56.65% of the household expenditure (the amount spent personally by all Nigerians to acquire goods and services within the country) was spent on food, with the balance of about 43.35 spent on non-food items. These and others are the items Nigerians purchase using PoS.
This further underlines the forward march of financial inclusion across Nigeria.
