November records highest POS, NIP transactions in 2018 – NIBSS

November 2018 had the highest Point of Sales (POS) activities and the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) instant payment (NIP) so far since January, according to data obtained from the settlement system.
According to a BusinessDay analysis of the NIBSS data, the volume of POS transactions increased by 82.6 percent to 29.4 million in November 2018 from 16.1 million in January 2018, the highest recorded in the year until last month. In value terms, it rose by 52.1 percent to N230.0 billion.
Also the NIP volume increased by 80.7 percent to 74.1 million in November from 41.0 million in January .The value increased by 38.6 percent to N7.9 trillion from N5.7 trillion
Ayodeji Ebo, MD, Afrinvest Securities Limited attributed this to “Black Friday Transactions carried out by retail outlets as well as early purchases ahead of Christmas.”
Ayodele Teriba, CEO, Economic Associates said that the end of the year purchases drove the high transactions in November.
For last year, December and November had highest and second-highest transaction volumes and values, in that order.
“Usually during the festive periods, purchases are done in November, Ayo Akinwunmi, Head of Research, FSDH Merchant Bank said to BusinessDay in a telephone interview.
“A lot of companies want to boost inventory and take advantage of sales that will be recorded in November and people take advantage for fear of a price increase in December. A number of companies pay their 13th- month salaries in November,” he explained.
Akinwunmi also noted that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s intervention through the reduction of electronic bank charges, additional investment in technology and cyber security is improving the confidence of Nigerians towards E-payment transactions than in the past.
Ebo is optimistic that there may be further increase in the value and volume of electronic transactions due to the Yuletide season as business activities always increase during this period.