Yemisi Izuora
The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System has disclosed that Points of Sale transactions increased by 54.3 per cent to N1.41tn in 2017 as more retail merchants embraced PoS as a means of transactions.
It stated in a report that PoS transactions in 2016 were worth N0.76tn, while in 2015, they were N0.45tn from N0.31tn in 2014.
The report read in part, “Transactions on PoS were impressive in 2017 setting a milestone of over N1.4tn in value in 2017. Furthermore, volume of transactions recorded a 92 per cent compound annual growth rate between 2014 and 2017. Volume of transactions was driven mostly by brick and mortar stores in the wholesale and retail sector.”
The NIBSS reported 146.27 million volume of PoS transactions in 2017 from 63.72 million in 2016.
Volume of transactions on PoS was 33.72 million in 2015; 20.82 million in 2014; 9.42 million in 2013; and 2.59 million in 2012.
The report stated that 0.63 million unique cards carried out PoS transactions in 2017.
This represented a 14 per cent increase when compared to 2016, with MasterCard dominating with 62.6 per cent, while Verve and Visa had 21.2 per cent and 16.2 per cent, respectively.
MasterCard recorded 91,111,368; Verve, 30,915,106; and Visa, 23,550.124.
The NIBSS stated, “PoS adoption by fuel stations has seen a significant rise over the last two years. Volume of transactions in 2017 was 10 per cent of total transactions as compared to five per cent in 2016.
“The most common failure reason for PoS transactions was insufficient funds that contributed 40 per cent to the total failed transactions.
“Verve cards gained market share over its major players in 2017, making up 21 per cent of total of total transaction volume in 2017. Visa volumes remained flat at 16 per cent, while MasterCard dropped to 63 per cent from 66 per cent in 2016.”
Top 10 leading PoS transactions by merchant category in 2017 were 39.56 million transactions on retail merchants; 28.73 million for wholesale merchants; fast food restaurant, 17.63 million; fuel stations, 15.23 million; hotels, 7.01 million; and pharmacies, 3.22 million.
Others are 3.01 million for telecoms; hospitals, 2.01 million; and financial institutions, 1.19 million.
The NIBSS stated that registered PoS terminal closed 2017 at 182,800, while connected and active PoS terminals last year were 155,600 and 105,100, respectively.
By location, Lagos led other states across the federation in PoS transactions in 2017.
The report stated that Lagos in 2017 had 68 per cent of PoS transactions, followed by Rivers State, with six per cent; and Abuja with four per cent of PoS transactions.
Ogun and Delta recorded three per cent PoS transactions, respectively