ABUJA – The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) has disclosed in a data that Electronic payment transactions in Nigeria rose to N1.07 quadrillion in 2024, for the first time hitting the quadrillion mark.

The value recorded on the NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) represents a 79.6 percent increase over the N600 trillion recorded in 2023.

Specifically, N1.07 quadrillion is about 702.6 billion in dollars based on the closing exchange rate of N1,535 to a dollar as at December 31, 2024.

While the e-payment data showed a steady increase throughout the 12 month period, the highest value was recorded in December being a festive period with lots of spending activities.

Nigerians spent a total of N115.1 trillion over electronic channels in December 2024, an all-time high monthly record on the NIBSS electronic payment platform.

The volume of transactions processed by NIBSS for the year also jumped to N11.2 billion in 2024 from 9.7 billion in 2023, representing a 15.5 percent increase in the volume of electronic transactions year-on-year.

Analysts believe that the surge in e-payment transactions can be linked to the recent cash crunch experience and the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) limiting the amount of cash that can be withdrawn daily.

According to the revised cashless policy, which came into effect on January 9, 2023, cash withdrawal by an individual is limited to N500,000 a week, while corporate organisations have N5 million withdrawal limit weekly.

These policies by the CBN, significantly contributed to the acceptance of mobile transfers, paying with PoS, USSD, among others electronic payment channels among Nigerians.