By Chinwendu Obienyi
The total number of Point of Sales (PoS) terminals deployed across Nigeria in the past 11 months of 2022 stood at 703,208 between January and November 2022.
According to the data released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) and seen by Daily Sun, this is in contrast to the 915,519 deployed PoS in the country as at December 2021. The data further revealed that the total number of Point of Sales (PoS) machines deployed by merchants and individuals across Nigeria hit 1.6 million in November 2022.
Meanwhile, the value of transactions over PoS terminals in Nigeria jumped to N759.2 billion in November 2022. This came as the highest monthly transaction recorded on the platform as more Nigerians have begun to go cashless.
Analysis of the November figure showed a 35 per cent year-on-year (y/y) increase when compared with the N560.2 billion recorded in the same month last year.
The NIBSS data shows that Nigerians have in the last 11 months of this year spent a total of N7.56 trillion over PoS. With December value yet to be added, this has surpassed the amount recorded in the full year 2021, which stood at N6.4 trillion.
However, there is still a wide gap between the number of registered PoS and the number of deployed machines. According to the NIBSS data, a total of 2.363 million PoS machines had been registered across the country as of November this year, which shows that a total of 744,987 terminals are either yet to be deployed or have become inactive.
Commenting on the development, analysts at Nairametrics noted that the growth of PoS transactions in Nigeria is being driven by many factors, part of which include rapid adoption by merchants for receiving payments.
They also added that the PoS is also bridging the gap created by the shortage of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) deployed by banks, as many Nigerians now withdraw through PoS agents. “The profitability of POS transactions for both banks and vendors has bolstered the growing deployment of POS. The cost of the transaction is often borne by the customers, creating profit for the POS operator and the bank.
In recent times, it has also served as a means of employment for Nigerian youths, who are building businesses through the offering of POS services”, they said.