Adoption of cashless financial transactions have hit a new height in Nigeria as the value of electronic transactions rose by 21 percent to N319.99 trillion in the third quarter of the year (Q3’20) from N263.8 trillion in Q2’20.

Meanwhile, in the same period commercial banks’ credit to private sector was N19.9 trillion rising by five percent when compared to N18.8 trillion credit in Q2’20.

In its Selected Banking Sector Data for Q3’20 the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, stated: “A total volume of 2.78 billion transactions valued at N319.9 trillion was recorded in Q3’20 as data on Electronic Payment Channels in the Nigeria banking sector revealed.

“RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) transfers dominated the volume of transactions recorded. 1,799,199 volume of Online Transfer transactions valued at N116.06 trillion were recorded in Q3’20.”

On Credit it stated: “In terms of credit to the private sector, the total value of credit allocated by the bank stood at N19.87 trillion as of Q3’20.

“Oil & Gas and Manufacturing sectors got credit allocation of N3.74 trillion and N3.03 trillion to record the highest credit allocation as at the period under review.

“Geographical distribution of credit by state stood at N19.46 trillion compared to N18.9 trillion in Q2’20 and N16.6 trillion in Q3’19. This represents 2.96 percent increase in credit QoQ and 17.11 percent Year on Year.

“Lagos State recorded the highest credit by geographical distribution with N15.13 trillion, accounting for 77.7 percent of the total credit by geographical distribution while Yobe State recorded the least with N19.4 billion, accounting for 0.09 percent in Q3’20.”

Vanguard