By Omodele Adigun
Instant electronic fund transfer, also known as NIBSS Instant Payments (NIPs), has come tops among the various payment channels in the country as over N89.8trillion was recorded through the platform in five years.
This was contained in the Whitepaper on e-payment statistics for the period, 2012-2016 released Tuesday by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The report, dated February 9,2017, which shows both volume and value of transactions that passed through the seven payment channels during the period, reveals that NIP and Automated Teller Machine(ATM) were the favourites of Nigerians when it came to alternative cash settlement during the peiod.
ATM led in the volume of transactions with about 1.98 trillion to beat instant fund transfer to the second place with about 244.77 million.
But in terms of amount recorded, NIP came first with over N89.815 trillion, while its twin-platform, National Electronic Fund Transfer(NEFT),was second with over N68.015trillion.Cheque settlement, although the report indicates that it may no longer be in vogue as its use declined, emerged third having been used to settle about 64.89million transactions totaling N33.43 trillion.
However, bank customers withdrew or deposited cash valued at over N16.39 trillion through the ATM.
Other payment channels such as Mobile Money, Point of Sales(PoS) and Web recorded N1.55 trillion, N1.54 trillion and over N345.76 billion in that order through 127.25,114.29 and 29.23 deals.