Data released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) has revealed that licensed mobile money operators including Opay, Palmpay, and 15 others processed transactions valued at N46.6 trillion in 2023.
This came as the highest annual mobile money transactions in the country. According to the NIBSS data, the 2023 transactions value represents a 140% increase compared to the N19.4 trillion transactions recorded across mobile money platforms in 2022.
The volume of mobile money transactions also jumped by 326% in the year under review. In 2022, the volume of mobile transactions in the country stood at 714 million, whereas in 2023, a total of 3.04 billion mobile money transactions were recorded.
Driving forces
The surge in transactions on mobile money platforms, otherwise known as fintechs is attributable to the technical hitches Nigerians experienced on their banking apps early last year when cash scarcity forced many to embrace online banking. The mobile money operators came to the rescue of many Nigerians at that time as transactions on their platforms were swift and without any hitches.
