According to data sourced from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), this increase translated to a hike in the value of transactions for the period which grew to ₦1.1 trillion, the highest figure recorded.
When compared with the number of deployed terminals last year, the latest figures indicate an increase of 75% showing there has been a steady spike in PoS deployment across the country.
As of March 2022, the number of deployed PoS terminals stood at 1.04 million and with the increase witnessed one year later, it shows that 776,089 new PoS terminals were deployed in the last 12 months.
The rate at which PoS terminals are being deployed recently can be traced to its high adoption rate in Nigeria as many youths have turned to the business as a source of employment.
The PoS terminals also act as an option for bank customers who need another source of cash withdrawal as most banks’ Automated Teller Machines (ATM) have failed to deliver in recent times.
The high deployment rate of the terminals, however, comes amid numerous challenges ranging from the cost of acquiring the terminals, bank-to-bank delays in cash reversals, poor network issues; security; poor power supply amongst others.
This also gives an explanation of the NIBBS data which shows that 504,572 terminals are still inactive despite the registration of a total of 2.329 million PoS machines as of December 2022.
When compared Year on year, the transaction value recorded in March 2023 – ₦1.1 trillion indicates a 60% increase when compared with the ₦718.5 billion recorded in March 2022.
Also in the month under review, the volume of PoS transactions increased to 177.9 million representing a 72.8% increase when compared with the 102.9 million recorded in March 2022.