Appetite for ATM transactions drops by half as POS gains momentum

The use of automated teller machine (ATM) for bank transactions dropped by more than half in the third quarter of 2017, a report from the National Bureau of Statistics has shown.

According to the Selected Banking Sector report released by the Bureau, there were 187 million ATM transactions in the second quarter of 2017, a figure that dropped to 62 million in the third quarter.

However, transactions made using cheques, point of sale (POS) systems and NIBSS instant payment increased.

Compared to the second quarter where 2.6 million transactions were carried out using cheques, it increased to 2.8 million transactions in the third quarter.

For POS, 32.7 million transactions were carried out in the second quarter and increased to 39.3 million in the third quarter.

Transactions carried out on NIBSS instant payment platforms increased from 80.8 million in the second quarter to 97 million in the third quarter.

The number of transactions carried out on the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) remained the same at 5.7 million.

Transactions made on mobile phones platforms reduced from 11.5 million in the second quarter to 3 million in the third quarter.

Banking transactions carried out on the web also reduced from 5.9 million in the second quarter to 2 million in the third quarter.

In 2012, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced a cashless policy to reduce the volume of cash in circulation. This policy improved the acceptance of electronic banking platforms.

At present, cash withdrawals below N100,000 cannot be carried out in the banking hall.