Volume of Cheque Transactions Falls by 23% in Three Years

The volume of cheque transactions dropped by 23 per cent between 2014 and 2016, according to the recently released “Cheque Transaction Statistics 2016” report by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc’s ( NIBSS) Enterprise Intelligence Unit.

The report showed that total cheque transactions, which stood at 15.28 million in 2014, reduced to 13.47 in 2015; and subsequently to 11.72 million in 2016.

It also showed that the value of cheque Transactions also fell by “six per cent as compared to 2015, and 20 per cent as compared to 2014.”

In all, “the total value of cheque transactions in 2016 stood at N5.83 trillion over the last two years, the volume of cheque transactions has declined by 13 per cent, two per cent and three per cent respectively across Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt. Only Ghana recorded an increase of two per cent,” the report stated.

It also showed that in 2016, 40 per cent (1.1 million) of individual cheques were issued by people aged between 55-64 years. Similarly, in 2016, the ratio of individual to corporate cheques was 1:3, while total corporate cheques in 2016 stood at 8.96 million transactions valued at N3.65 trillion.

The central bank, the NIBSS and other stakeholders in the electronic payment system have been sensitising Nigerians on the need to adopt digital payment systems for their transactions.

The Deputy Director in the Governor’s Office, CBN, Mr. Babatunde Ajiboye recently described the cashless policy as a journey, saying that the policy was introduced in a bid to transform the payment system.

Ajiboye emphasised that handling cash is expensive and constitute quite a significant percentage of the cost that banks carry.

“And of course, that cost is passed on to customers in order for them to make profit. Of course, we need efficiency within our payment system. Of course, there is a high security and safety risk, which we can’t elaborate too much on that.

“We know the level of insecurity we face in Nigeria today. And most of the insecurity that we face can be tied directly to cash. One of the social crimes that we face is kidnapping, for instance. Once we bring in transparency into our payment system, it will also bring down the social evil that we face,” Ajiboye emphasised.

According to him, only about 10 per cent of Nigerian bank customers do cash transactions above N150, 000 daily. He stressed that the aim of the cashless policy is certainly not to eliminate cash completely, but to reduce the amount of cash in the system.

On his part, the Executive Director, Commercial Banking, Access Bank, Mr. Roosevelt Ogbonna said the CBN and banks had put in a lot of resources towards making the cashless policy a success. “For states where this has been entrenched over the last couple of years, we have seen the significant benefits and advantages it has brought to economic participants in those markets.