Nigerians operate 70.18m bank
accounts • Transactions on ATM terminals hit N2tr by July • CBN tasks consumers on cards’ protection AS at July, 2014, the total number of
bank accounts in Nigeria was 70.18
million. Of the 70.18 million, 15.45
million are current, while 51.59 million
are savings accounts. This was contained in the Nigeria
Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS)
statistics made available by the
Electronic Payment Providers
Association of Nigeria (EPPAN) at the
E-Payment Media Academy 101 organised for technology journalists in
Lagos yesterday. It was also disclosed that the total
number of corporate accounts in
Nigeria are 5.37 million while
individuals account for 64.81million. The NIBSS statistics further showed
that currently in Nigeria, there are just
about 13, 770 ATMs, which as at July
2014 recorded 214.63 million
transactions worth about N2 trillion.
The number of active payment cards on the ATMs was said to be about
41.89 million. Speaking at the forum with the theme
“The Role of Media in the Propagation
of E-Payment Systems in Nigeria”, the
Deputy Director, Banking and Payment
System Department, Jimoh Musa Itopa,
who represented the Director of Payment Services at the Central Bank
of Nigeria (CBN), Dipo Fatokun, noted
that the onus of protecting the
payment cards against fraud rested
mostly on the consumers. According to Itopa, the number of
Nigerians with bank accounts is still
below 30 million, and most cases of
fraud come mainly from overseas. He stressed that the CBN had asked
the banks to protect their various
payment systems. He explained that it was not only
when customers knowingly or
unknowingly divulged their PIN
identities that their accounts’ security
could be breached “ but also when
intending fraudsters have access to the 16 digits numbers on the face of
the ATM cards; the expiry date and the
Security numbers which are the last three
digits at the back of the cards. This
information can be cloned by any
hacker and could wreak huge havoc on the original owner of the account.” According to him, the CBN and the
bankers committee are working on so
many modalities that will mitigate the
vulnerabilities of consumers in the
country. On the paper titled “Understanding the
Policy of E-Payment in Nigeria”,
presented on behalf of Fatokun, Itopa
said the process was to eliminate
delays in the payment process; ensure
online real time; minimize people’s interaction; and improve control,
supervision and process efficiency. He described payment system as the
entire arrangements of instruments,
procedures, regulations and laws
governing institutions, interconnected
networks of hardware and
communications technology facilitating transfer of monetary value
between transacting businesses. To one of the facilitators from NIBSS,
Osamede Odiase, the Nigeria’s e-
payment sub-sector is gaining serious
tractions, even from outside the
country. Odiase noted that NIBSS was working
seriously to ensure that Nigerians’
experiences on e-payment platforms
are excellent. According to him, for improved e-
payment system in Nigeria, the
banking sector is working with the
telecoms industry to ensure improved
interoperability on the platforms. He recalled that at the initial stage of e-
payment in Nigeria, there were huge
challenges which revolved around
poor network services on the point of
sale and the ATMs, “but the
collaboration between the two industries of banks and telecoms have
ensured reduction in these challenges.
We believed that with improved
broadband facilities in the country,
such problems will soon be a thing of
the past.” To the Executive Secretary \Chief
Executive Officer, EPPAN, Mrs. Onajite
Regha, there has been serious
improvement in the country’s e-
payment sector, stressing that the
industry was working seriously to create a thriving payment industry in
the country, like other parts of the
globe.
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