THE National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has said that the value of e-payment transactions recorded by banks in third quarter of 2017 declined to N19.33 trillion from N19.78 trillion in the second quarter of the year, representing 2.3 percent decrease.

It also noted that the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System, NIBSS, Instant Payment, NIP, transactions dominated the volume of transactions during the period recording a volume of 97.53 million transactions valued at N13.963 trillion.

The NBS in its report titled ‘Selected Banking Sector Data,’ did not explain factors responsible for the decline but said the amount was recorded in 213.69 million transactions.  The data revealed that a total of N15.8 trillion worth of credit was allocated by the banks to private sectors in third quarter of 2017, indicating a marginal increase of 0.8 percent when compared to the N15.7 trillion allocated to the sector in second quarter of 2017.

According to the data, oil and gas and manufacturing sectors got credit allocation of N3.5 trillion and N2.3 trillion, respectively to record the highest credit allocation in the period under review. The data further showed that the total number of banks’ staffs in third quarter of 2017 increased by 9.16 percent to 82,531 in second quarter of 2017 from 75,607 during the review period.

– Dec.  15, 2017 @ 09:43 GMT