More Nigerians are being forced to go cashless as the value of transactions over Point of Sales (PoS) machines in Nigeria jumped to N1.1 trillion in March, 2023, the highest in months.
Year on year, the March figure shows a 60 per cent increase when compared with the N718.5 billion recorded in the same month last year, according to latest statistics released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).
Similarly, the volume of transactions on PoS also rose to 177.9 million in the month under review. This represents a 72.8 per cent increase when compared with the 102.9 million recorded in March 2022.
The NIBSS data shows that Nigerians in the first 3 months of this year had spent a total of N2.8 trillion over PoS.
Aside from the recent cash scarcity, the growth of PoS transactions in Nigeria is being driven by many factors, part of which include rapid adoption by merchants for receiving payments.
Also, the number of Point of Sales (PoS) machines deployed by merchants and individuals across Nigeria rose to 1.8 million in March this year, representing a 75 per cent year on year compared with the number of deployed terminals in the same period last year, which was 1.04 million.