Nume Ekeghe
As more Nigerians migrate to electronic banking, three leading technological-driven banks in Nigeria, Access Holdings Plc, Guaranty Trust Holdings Plc, and Zenith Bank Plc generated N123.94 trillion via Mobile Banking, Automated Teller Machine (ATM), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) among other electronic banking platforms in half year ended June 30, 2023.
This represent an increase of 28.3 per cent over N96.58 trillion reported in the corresponding half-year ended June 30, 2022.
Analysis of the banks’ results for the half-year ended June 30, 2023 showed that the three banks generated N87.43billion from Channels and other E-business income in H1 2023 as against N82.07billion reported in H1 2022.
In the period under consideration, Zenith Bank generated the highest value of transactions in the banking via electronic banking platforms, followed by Access Holdings.
Zenith Bank raked N54.03 trillion from all its electronic banking platforms in H1 2023, an increase of 9.1 per cent from N49.5 trillion reported in H1 2022.
For Access Holdings, it generated N49.69 trillion from all its electronic banking platforms in H1 2023 from N28.85 trillion in H1 2022, while GTCO declared N20.22 trillion revenue from its electronic banking platforms in H1 2023, an increase of about 11 per cent from N18.22 trillion reported in H1 2022.
According to GTCO, “We continued to make significant investments in enhancing our digital banking capabilities to consolidate our dominance in this key market segment.”
GTCO generated N1.43 trillion USSD value of transactions in H1 2023, a decline of 15 per cent from N1.68 trillion reported in H1 2022.
“In terms of value, USSD transactions stood at N1.43 trillion dipping by 15 per cent over the corresponding period and mirroring the increase in mobile banking transaction value over the same period as customers continued to show sensitivity to the N6.98 USSD transaction charge. In terms of volume, USSD averaged 87 million, a seven per cent growth over the corresponding period in 2022,” the Group in a statement to investors/analysts said.
GTCO explained that there was increased adoption of electronic banking platforms with strong growth in both volume and value of Mobile Banking.
It stated: “14per cent year-on-year growth in Mobile Banking transaction value; from N15.2 trillion in H1 2022 to N17.4 trillion in H1 2023 on the back of a 44per cent increase in volume from N224.9 million to N323.5 million from new users on the platforms.
“The decline in USSD and Internet Banking volume indicates customers’ continued preference for mobile channels. The value and volume of Internet Banking transactions spiked from Mar ‘23 as customers sought alternatives to cash following the cash crunch from the Naira redesign exercise.”
