Point of sale transactions carried out in Nigeria in the first eight months of the year stood at N4.06 trillion, representing a 45 percent increase compared to N2.81 trillion recorded in the corresponding period of 2020.
The statistics paints a clear picture of the increased interest in the use of POS as a means of transaction, especially with Nigerians continuous adoption of cashless policy, and the downsides of having to move around with cash and queue at the banking hall for withdrawals and deposits.
According to data obtained from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), POS transactions hit its highest levels for any eight-month period, increasing by 44.8 percent and 108 percent compared to N2.81 trillion and N1.96 trillion recorded in the similar period of 2020 and 2019 respectively.
Similarly, the volume of POS transactions recorded between January and August 2021 stood at 619.3 million, increasing by 61.8 percent compared to 382.9 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2020. It is worth noting that a total of 686,577 POS terminals were deployed nationwide as of August 2021, representing an 84.4 percent increase compared to 372,333 recorded as of the same period of 2020.
The value of POS transactions in the country for the month of August 2021 stood at N504.88 billion, lower than N554.67 billion recorded in the previous month, while it rose marginally compared to N503.91 billion carried out in June 2021.
A total of N4.06 trillion worth of POS transactions have been carried out so far in the year. Meanwhile, according to data made available by the NIBSS, N1.41 trillion, N2.32 trillion, N3.2 trillion, and N4.73 trillion were recorded in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 respectively.
In terms of volume, 146.27 million, 285.89 million, 438.61 million, and 655.75 million transactions were carried out in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 respectively, while a total of 619.28 million transactions have been recorded so far this year.
