Economy Fingered as POS Transactions Edge up in September

The state of the country’s economy has been attributed as being responsible for the low level of use of Point of Sale (PoS) terminal as a means of payment in the month of September this year, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek has learnt.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered from a report by Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) the industry Payments Terminal Service Aggregator (PTSA), that value of transactions over the platform recorded only N2billion increase from N64Billion to N66Billion between the month of August and September this year, while it recorded N5billion increase between the month of July and August this year.

More so, volume of transactions was also affected as volume in the month under review recorded only 2 million increase from 53million to 55million compared to 3million increase it recorded between July and August this year.

Reacting to this development, Mrs. Regha Onajite, chief executive officer, Electronic Payment Providers Association of Nigeria (EPPAN) said that a lot of people have not really embraced the PoS but, that is not a challenge. “The PoS is only a channel for electronic payment. We have so many other channels like the Mpos, mobile, ATMS, web/online, instant payments etc. so the PoS is one of many other choices.”

“The CBN and the operators should focus on awareness creation for further adoption. During the early days of the Cashless initiative, E-PPAN under the aegis of the CBN and the support of the financial institutions had massive awareness campaign especially below the line campaign in addition to what the banks, the central bank and other providers were doing with above the line campaign to promote the understanding and adoption of electronic payments channels. This I will say has to be sustained.”

“We are talking here about a change in culture, a shift in behaviour, it can’t be done overnight. Advocacy for change must be sustained. The message must continuously be in the face of the people. Now sensitization and mobilization should be supported by deliberate policies from the government.  In my opinion, the Central Bank should implement the cash limitation policies across the entire nation. This should be supported by a reward and punishment system.”

Tunde Ogungbade, managing director, Global Accelerex Limited said that macro-economic factors in the country have incapacitated banks from increasing e-payment channels.

 “In the last two years, the country has experienced strong macro-economic headwinds: Banks are arteries connected to the heart of the economy.  All these macro-factors will impact on non-performing loan portfolios and the ability to invest in the merchant acquiring business.  PoS terminals have to be imported.  The scarcity of dollar has driven up cost and reduced units procured.”

He said: “uncertainty about the future of new research, development and innovation, there has been several initiatives outside PoS that were hopeful options to leapfrog the use of cards. Technologies such as Near Field Communication and Barcode Scanning have been explored by banks to facilitate retail payment.  There is also the use of Mobile Money and m-POS.  These technologies are available today but require a significant consumer and merchant behavioral change.  The exploration of these alternatives requires significant investment which plausibly reduced PoS investment and deployment,” he noted.