Following the Central Bank of Nigeria’s
introduction of the new Naira note and  the scarcity of cash in circulation afterwards couple with its new withdrawal limit policy, the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NISS) has reported that the country’s mobile banking usage surged by 230.72 per cent year-on-year in January 2023.

According to NISS report, in January 2023, mobile gateways were used 108.14 million times, a 230.72 per cent increase from the 32.69 million times they were used in the corresponding period last year.

During the period under review, the value of mobile transactions surged by 124.85 per cent to N2.37tn from N1.05tn in January 2022.

While the surge in the use of mobile payment gateways began in 2020, a new CBN policy in 2022 is driving this new growth.

While issuing the directive which spurred the current rise in mobile banking, the apex bank said, “The maximum weekly limit for cash withdrawals across all channels by individuals and corporate organisations shall be N500,000 and N5m respectively.

“Customers should be encouraged to use alternative channels (Internet banking, mobile banking apps, USSD, cards/POS, eNaira, etc.) to conduct their banking transactions.”