Leadership (Abuja)
Amaka Ifeakandu
2 June 2008
The reform of the nation's payment system has continued to yield positive result as value of cheque cleared in the system rose by 70.5 per cent.
According to the CBN financial report, the value of cheque cleared last year increased from N16.4 trillion in 2006 to N28.1 trillion at the end of December 2007.
Also the volume of cheque cleared in 2007 rose by 33.3 per cent to 19.9 million against 14.9 million recorded in 2006.
The CBN said that the astronomical increase in the value of cheques cleared reflected a shift to the use of non cash transactions by the public.
Lagos State, as the commercial hub of country dominated other clearing centres in both volume and value of transaction accounting 44.6 and 41.2 per cent while Ibadan accounted for 19.6 per cent and 17.3 in volume and value.
However, the volume and value of currency denominated card transactions stood at 233,175 and $63.56 million, rising by 75.8 and 82.8 per cent respectively above the levels in 2006.
The point of Sale (POS) segment recorded impressive growth in volume and value terms with increase of 493.4 and 1,151.9 per cent respectively which stood at N421,946 and N6.44 billion at the end December 2007.
The development, according to the CBN was due to the increased connectivity of sales terminal, wider public acceptance of debit cards, increased number of merchants and the phasing out of value card and the introduction of V-pay which is an on line card.
Also the internet based transactions in volume and value terms rose to 903,067 and N10.6 billion indicating an increase of 306.4 and 261.1 per cent respectively over the level in the preceding year.
The CBN attributed the growth to the rise in number of financial institutions offering internet banking and the growing number of merchants accepting payments through the website.
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