As businesses return back to their regular operations, the volume of transactions carried out using Point of Sale (PoS) machines and Mobile has started to recover after dropping significantly in April due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
The volume of PoS transactions which initially rose to 52.2 million at the end of March, dropped more than 20% to 40.85 million in April due to the lockdown.
However, the trend is witnessing a reversal as POS registered about 48.37 million transactions in May, according to the report released by the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS).
Increasing in Value of POS transaction
Similar to the volume of PoS transactions, the total value of PoS transactions also recovered in May after dropping over N96.8 billion in April. The value of PoS transactions rose to N358.1 billion in May.
The rise was occasioned by the return of most businesses and companies to the normal working hours attended before the coronavirus outbreak.
Most businesses that use PoS for transactions were forced to shut down their operations and close up their physical offices following the restriction of movement ordered by the government.
This shutdown caused the steady growth which PoS adoption has enjoyed recently to drop sharply. However, NIBSS report for May shows great recovery in PoS used by Nigerians.
Surprisingly, the total number of PoS deployed in the country increased during the lockdown. Deployment increased by about 6,894 to 312,619 in April and even further to 488,825 in May.
In 2020, Over 182 thousand PoS machines have been deployed in Nigeria
Increase in the volume of mobile transactions
The growth of Mobile Inter-scheme Transactions which has been steady since January was interrupted in April. The volume dropped to 7.12 million from the 8.8 million recorded in March.
However, the volume of mobile transactions recovered post-lockdown, rising above March figures to record 9.5 million.
While the volume of mobile transactions reduced during the lockdown, the value of transaction increased. The report shows that value increased from N169.8 billion in March to N172 billion during the lockdown in April.
The increase in value was probably caused by the closure of banks during the lockdown. The Value of mobile transactions stood at about N230 billion at the end of May.
Increase in volume of NIBSS instant payment
Similar to mobile and PoS transactions, the total volume of transactions carried out using instant payment also dropped during the lockdown.
The NIBSS data showed that the total volume of instant payments dropped by about 28.1 million from 135.2 million recorded in March to 107.17 million in April.
However, the number of instant payment deals increased to about 141.2 million post-lockdown. The value of instant payment transactions also increased to N10.4 trillion during the same period.
This represents an N3.9 trillion increase from N7 trillion which is the value of instant payments recorded between March and April.
N5 billion in E-bills payments
There was a slight increase in the volume of E-bills payment post-lockdown after its numbers dropped significantly during the lockdown.
The report shows that the volume dropped by almost half from 80.4 thousand in March to 40.9 thousand in April. The volume of E-bills payment for May rose slightly to 44.4 thousand in May.
Similarly, the value of E-bills payments suffered a decline during the lockdown. The value dropped from N107 Billion in March to about 85.6 billion in April.
However, while the volume of E-bills payment began recovering May, the value of transactions dropped even further to N80.2 billion. The drop was probably caused by people returning to their old ways of paying bills.
In Summary, the report shows a major decline in the volume and value of PoS transactions during the pandemic.
However, it also shows great recovery across all digital transaction options in the country post-lockdown.
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