…As electronic transactions rise to N65trn
From Basil Obasi, Abuja
Nigerian banking sector credit to the private sector grew to about N59.56 trillion in 2016 despite the challenges faced by most lenders in the course of the year.
A report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released at the weekend also showed that of this volume of credit, the services and industrial sector got total credit allocation of N23.07trn and N22.85 trillion respectively to emerge as the sectors with the highest allocation in 2016.
According to the report, Nigeria’s cashless policy continued to gain traction among the business community as electronic transactions in 2016 witnessed a 32 percent increase, from N48.93 trillion in 2015 to N65.16 trillion.
The NBS report titled “Selected Banking Sector Data” on electronic payment channels in the Nigeria banking sector, released at the weekend, revealed that a total of 910,186,115 transactions valued at N65.16 trillion with the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) transactions which stood at total of 590, 238, 934 volume of transactions, valued at N4.98 trillion, dominating the transaction in 2016.
The report shows that ATM transactions had the highest volume despite being 4th in terms of value, while the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System Instant Payment (NIP) option came 2nd in terms of volume and highest in monetary terms.
On the other hand, the National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) emerged the 3rd largest by value of transaction in 2016.
Meanwhile, payments by cheques recorded the least transaction in terms of volume while internet banking had the smallest deal in monetary value; and with point of sales (POS) transactions appearing 3rd in terms of volume but 5th in terms of value.
The NBS report indicated that volume and value of transactions witnessed an upward trend all through the year, implying that the 1st quarter had the least volume and monetary value of transaction which stood at 186,822,418 and N13, 229.82 billion respectively while during the last quarter of the year, the banking sector had the highest level of transaction with the total volume of transaction being 285,533,360 while the monetary value was N19, 069.02 billion.
The NBS report further revealed that a total of 4,017 bank workers lost their jobs during the period under review due to the economic recession ravaging the industry and economy as a whole.