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PoS transactions hit N35.84bn in one month

By on October 10, 2015

Nigerians spent a total of N35.84bn on transactions using Point of Sale terminals in the month of August, investigation has shown.

The amount was spent in 2.7 million successful transactions that were carried out across the country, the PoS as the payment option in the period under review.

The Head of Corporate Communications, Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System Limited, Lilian Phido, confirmed this in an electronic mail response to an enquiry by our correspondent.

The NIBBS, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Bankers’ Committee have been in the vanguard of a national campaign to promote less use of the cash in the economy.

The CBN had in 2012 introduced a new policy on cash-based transactions by imposing cash handling charges on daily withdrawals that exceeded N500,000 for individuals and N3m for corporate bodies.

The policy aims at reducing the amount of physical cash circulating in the economy and encouraging more electronic-based transactions.

According to the bank, the cash policy was introduced for a number of reasons, including to drive development and modernisation of the payment system in line with Nigeria’s Vision 2020 goal of being among the top 20 economies by the year 2020; to reduce the cost of banking services (including cost of credit) and drive financial inclusion by providing more efficient transaction options and greater reach; and to improve the effectiveness of monetary policy in managing inflation and driving economic growth.

In addition, the policy aims to curb some of the negative consequences associated with the high usage of physical cash in the economy, including the high cost of cash handling, high risk of using cash, and high subsidy on high-value transactions, as well as reducing large volume of cash outside the formal economy, and reducing inefficiency and corruption associated with high cash usage.

The Director of Banking and Payment System Department, CBN, Mr. Dipo Fatokun, had on Wednesday disclosed that the banking industry had opened talks with telecommunications operators for the introduction of mobile PoS.

The talk is centred on the support the telecoms operators have to render to the banking industry to ensure the success of mobile PoS in the country.

Fatokun said the introduction of mobile PoS had become necessary in order to increase the payment options available to Nigerians in the quest for a cashless society.

According to him, making payment terminals ubiquitous will promote the use of electronic payment system in transactions across the country.

He said making available efficient broadband services to the PoS terminals would make it possible to conclude transactions on mobile PoS terminals quickly.

 

[Punch]