E-payments Ecosystem Continues to Show Promise

Friday, July 10, 2020 05:20 PM / by CSL Research/ Header Image Credit:  The Guardian Nigeria

The payments industry in Nigeria continues to demonstrate its promising growth with the recent data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) showing solid growth across the various e-payments mechanisms in the first 5 months of 2020 (January - May 2020). NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) transactions recorded a healthy 17.3% y/y and 47.7% y/y growth in transaction value and volume to N48.7tn and 615.3m respectively. For POS transactions, total transaction value and volume grew 44.0% y/y and 50.0% y/y respectively to N1.6tn and 228.9m respectively. The most impressive growth was recorded in Mobile transactions category where transaction volume and value grew 567.5% y/y and 364.7% y/y to 41.1m and N853.7bn respectively.

The sustained growth in e-payments transaction volume and value in Nigeria evidences increased adoption of technology in payments and cash transfers by the Nigerian populace. This is driven by increasing internet & mobile penetration as well as investment by banks and other payment-based fintechs investment in payment technology infrastructure. Furthermore, we note that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced reduction to the fees payable on mobile and internet payments/transfers. We think this has had a mild impact on increased usage of these platforms. In addition, with the onset of the pandemic the use of physical cash in settling payments and bills has been discouraged. Thus, we think e-payments benefitted from significantly from this.

Going forward, we expect the e-payments industry to continue to record significant growth even beyond the pandemic as many of the new methods of transacting will be sustained in our view. In our opinion, the e-payments sector of the fintech ecosystem is expected to serve as the growth frontier of the new decade in Nigeria as highlighted in our 2020 Nigeria Fintech Sector Report (See CSL_Nigeria's Fintech Industry 2020; Growth Frontier of the New Decade). Consequently, we expect banks and payment fintechs like Interswitch & Paga to benefit significantly from the e-payments revolution.

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