The value of transactions through electronic payment (e-payment) channels in the country fell by 1.21 percent, or N1.32 trillion, to N107.56 trillion in September 2025 from N108.88 trillion in the preceding month, according to a report by Financial Derivatives Company Limited (FDC).
Although the firm, which cites e-payment transactions data obtained from the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), did not proffer any reason for the decline, it had, in earlier report, attributed the drop in e-payment transactions across all e-payment channels in August this year to “constrained consumer spending.”
However, the firm’s September 2025 report noted that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently introduced new operational guidelines for agent banking across the country, in which it capped daily cumulative transactions per agent at N1.2 million and N100,000 for individual customers.
It stated that, while the new guidelines could lead to a drop in Pont of Sale (PoS) transaction value “in the near term but encourage transfer payments,” they are, in the long run, “expected to enhance transparency, security and long-term growth in the payment ecosystem.”
The report indicates that the value of Nigeria Interbank Settlement System Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) transactions fell by 2.07per cent to N5.21 trillion in September 2025 from N5.32 trillion in August. The report also shows that NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) transactions dropped by 0.35 per cent to N97.25 trillion in September from N97.59 trillion in August.
Similarly, the value of PoS transactions fell sharply by 15.59 per cent to N4.82 trillion in September from N5.71 trillion in the previous month. However, cheques recorded an increase in transaction value, rising by 7.75 per cent to N278 billion in September from N258 billion in August.
Further analysis of data from NIBSS, however, indicates that while the total value of e-payment transactions dropped last month, it increased by 15.04 percent when compared with the N93.5 trillion recorded for the corresponding period of 2024.
Analysts note that there has been increased adoption of epayment channels in the country in recent years, a development they attribute to factors, such as the CBN’s initiatives to promote the cashless policy, the impact of the 2020 Covid-19 crisis and the naira redesign programme introduced by the apex bank in late 2022.
For instance, in its “Instant Payments – 2020 Annual Statistics” report, NIBSS stated: “The pandemic changed the e-payments landscape, accelerating the adoption of instant payments as more people transitioned to electronic channels for funds exchange in the wake of government imposed lockdowns.”
In the same vein, implementation challenges with the CBN’s naira redesign policy led to an acute shortage of cash, which crippled economic activities across the country in the first quarter of 2023, thus compelling bank customers, who were unable to access cash at the time, to adopt e-payment channels.
Although the regulator later abandoned the naira redesign policy, analysts believe it is one of the factors that account for the lingering cash scarcity in the banking system. Reason: members of the public, who at the time, found it difficult withdrawing cash from banks were pushed into embracing banking agents, also known as PoS operators.
As a result, there has been a sharp increase in the number of PoS terminals deployed across the country by financial institutions in recent years especially in 2024.
Indeed, data from NIBSS shows that the number of deployed terminals stood at 2.48 million in January 2024; 2.58 million in February; 2.69 million in March; 2.80 million in April; 2.85 million in May and 2.94 million in June. The data further indicates that deployed PoS terminals rose to 3.05 million in July; 3.15 million in August; 3.24 million in September; 4.87 million in October; 5.40 million in November and 5.56 million in December.
