Number of Deployed PoS Terminals in Nigeria Reaches 2.7 Million in March 2024 – NIBSS

The number of Point of Sales (PoS) machines deployed by merchants and individuals across Nigeria surged to 2.7 million in March this year, according to the latest electronic payment data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).

This marks a significant 50% year-on-year increase from the 1.8 million terminals recorded during the same period last year, indicating that 864,753 new PoS terminals were deployed over the past year.

However, despite this growth, the number of deployed PoS machines remains lower than the total registered terminals.

According to the NIBSS data, a total of 3.730 million PoS machines had been registered across the country as of March 2024, which shows that a total of 1.04 million terminals are either yet to be deployed or have become inactive.

PoS transactions Overview

The value of transactions over PoS terminals in Nigeria has been growing consistently over the years. However, data for March 2024 shows that there was a decline when compared with last year’s figure.

According to NIBSS data, PoS transactions value for March stood at N961.8 billion, a 16.5% decline compared with the N1.15 trillion recorded in March 2023.

However, the record in March last year, when the PoS value hit an all-time high is attributable to the unusual cash scarcity at the period, which forced many Nigerians to embrace electronic transactions.

Aside from the 2023 cash scarcity, the growth of PoS transactions in Nigeria is being driven by many factors, part of which include rapid adoption by merchants for receiving payments. PoS is also bridging the gap created by the shortage of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) deployed by banks, as many Nigerians now withdraw through PoS agents.