The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed that the value of mCash transactions stood at N88.56 billion between October 2018 and September 2019.
According to the bureau, the volume and value of mCash payments have been on the increase since it was re-launched in August 2018 by telecommunication operators and 16 Nigerian banks. In the period under review, the volume of payments totaled 218, 132.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, NIBSS, Adebisi Shonubi, at the re-launch of the mCash initiative in Lagos, disclosed mCash platform was created out of the need to enhance financial inclusion in Nigeria by extending e-payment benefits to payers and merchants operating at the local level, especially the small and medium-scale business owners.
“The intention is to expand the payment opportunity for people who still use cash today to find a more convenient means of making payments,” Shonubi said.
The breakdown
- In October 2018, a total of 18,326 deals worth N59.23 million were recorded on the mCash platform, with November 2018 recording 19,528 in volume of transactions amounting to N54.18 million.
- December 2018, 21,001 mCash payments worth N67.24 million were achieved by retailers in the country.
- Last year January, the volume of transactions on the mCash platform dipped to 17,574 and reduced to N54.31 million.
- However, in February 2019, the volume of mCash payments rose to 19,009 and a value of N61.72 million was recorded with further improvement in March, recording 22,121 mCash payments worth N67.41 million.
- April saw retailers carrying out 21,123 deals valued at N66.02 million; May’s volume rose to 23,859, with a value of N87.15 million.
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Meanwhile, the bureau stated that from June to September 2019, a total of 55,591 deals valued at N88.04 billion were conducted by retailers all over the country.
mCash is an unstructured supplementary service data-based service that helps small business owners to receive funds from their low-income customers using their mobile devices.
The cashless initiative, first launched in 2016, was among the various means merchants received payments, with others such as NIP, Point of Sales and ATM, recording more usage in terms of volume and value of transactions.
“To ensure the paradigm shift, we had to promote an ecosystem partnership consisting of banks and telecommunication companies, thereby birthing what has become a novel collaboration anywhere in the world – a service that is not one bank or one telco-driven but which is ecosystem-driven,” Shonubi said.