See Nigeria Is Ranked In POS Transactions In Africa

After three solid years since POS was introduced into this country
, it is sad to know that according to a report, Nigeria stills ranks on a far 7th on POS transactions in Africa with country like Ghana and South Africa far above. According to a report by Indexmundi only 21 percent of total transactions in the country are done through the PoS device.

According to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the PoS density per 100,000 people in Nigeria is 13, while India’s is 67; Uganda, 453; Namibia, 338. It might also feel good to know that Nigeria has a target, and that is to meet Brazil’s PoS deployment rate of 2,247 per 100,000 people by 2020. The only headache here is that proper moves are not being made to meet the stipulated target.

On what may be the reason behind this number, Kevin Chung of Avante International Technology, at the just concluded CashlessAfrica Expo, said that while the communication network and bandwidth are adequate, the data centres in the financial communities in Nigeria needs to upgrade from Tier 1-2 to Tier 3-4 to enable the cash-less economy.

But if you ask me for a reason, I’d tell you that it is the fear of Nigerians to trust a new payment system. We are already fully engrossed in the cash payment system that it took some time to even accept the online payment fully. And may I note that it has not been fully accepted in the country YET.

“There is high percentage of unbanked in the country and uneven access to money, these hobbles cashless initiative in the country.” These were the words of Tunde Ogungbade, managing director, Global Accelerex Limited, who said that cash places a huge toll on GDP and that in Nigeria cost of cash management is projected by CBN to be N250billion by 2020.

He also added that a cashless future must serve society at large, and that it cannot be about corporate interest, governmental control or surveillance and monitoring. “It must be about providing endless consumer choice for payment”.

Well, to me, I think a lot of awareness should be done on how safe payment with a PoS could be, because as an average Nigerian, I fear to part with my money without getting any value in return.