During the Eid-El-Kabir holidays, poor network service disrupted quite a number business transactions across Nigeria, as many bank customers could not successfully make payments via Point of Sales (PoS) terminals.
About 23%, or 309,016 out of a total 1.3 million transactions carried out as of 4:pm on Friday July 31st, failed. Also, the failure rate increased further by 16.98%, as 385,960 out of 2.27 million total transactions declined as of Saturday August 1st.
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These figures were obtained from the live transaction updates of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).
According to the data, issuer banks contributed the most to the recorded failed transactions, as 68,697 and 32,230 of the failed transactions were attributed to errors on their platforms.
This was closely followed by errors emanating from the customers, which accounted for 37,034 and 65,619 of failed payments respectively.
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More details: The statistics indicated that 33,260 and 45,099 errors emanated from the acquirer banks and 19,728 and 74,000 errors, which originated from the processors, also contributed significantly to the failed funds transfer and payments carried out by retailers and merchants.
What it means: The development indicates that some of the failed transactions stemmed from network disruptions and technology glitches. It is also an indication that the transactions declined during peak transaction periods and festive seasons.
I don’t think we are ready for the cashless banking that many banks in Nigeria seem to be promoting. More often than not, attempting to use electronic payment channels like the POS leaves a very bitter taste in my mouth. Even the mobile apps etc of certain banks sometimes fail for very long hours thereby disorganising your business transaction for the entire period. It’s so difficult to plan properly with such unstable electronic payment arrangements. Tech savvy customers may not be deterred so much by these inefficiencies, but the new converts and skeptics may be driven to revert to carrying cash especially for important transactions.