Mobile Payments Drop By 85% In 2016

Nigerians interest in mobile banking and payments have begun to wane as the volume and value of transactions consummated on the mobile platform has dwindled by more than 85 per cent in the first seven months of 2016.Total volume of mobile payment transactions recorded from January to July 2016 stood at 3.41 million as against 22.76 million mobile payment transactions done in the first seven months of 2015 and full year 2015 figure of 43.93 million transactions.The seven months figure of 3.41 million transactions recorded in 2016 was lower than 3.599 million mobile money transactions that was done in March 2015. This signifies a rapid reduction in interest in the use of the mobile payment platform by Nigerians.According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) total value of mobile payment transactions done between January and July 2016 stood at N77.87 billion, a far cry from N442.35 billion that had changed hands through mobile money transactions in 2015.The use of cheque payments had also declined slightly as the value of total cheque payments in the seven months period stood at N3.33 trillion compared to full year figure of N6.195 trillion recorded in 2015. Volume stood at 6.7 million as against 6.19 million cheques cleared in 2015.Automated Teller Machine (ATM) transactions improved slightly as total value and volume in the seven months period of 2016 stood at N2.598 trillion and 309.61 million respectively compared to total value and volume of N3.97 trillion and 433.59 million transactions recorded in the 12 months period of 2015.The use of Point of Sale (POS) terminals also increased as 30.41 million transactions had been recorded in the seven month period of 2016 compared to 33.72 million that was recorded in the 12 month period of 2015.Value of POS transactions between January and July 2016 stood at 367.87 billion as against N448.51 billion value of transactions recorded between January and December 2015. A total of N7.67 trillion had changed hands through the Nigeria Inter Bank Settlement System Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) in 16.44 million transactions.
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