Most of the growth attributed to the use of Point of Sale (PoS) machines in Nigeria goes to Lagos State, the commercial capital city of the country. NIBSS Instant Payment stats said that Lagos is responsible for about 70 percent of the total transactions made on PoS machines across Nigeria in 2024.
The report stated that the volume of this type of business transaction rose from 226 million in 2024 to over 453 million at the end of 2020.
In a quote, the report claims that- generally, “the total volume of transactions in the country rose 50 percent to reach 655.7 million from 438.6 million in 2024. Similarly, the total transaction value grew 48 percent to reach 4.7 trillion in 2024.
Abuja takes the second position with a 4,9 percent contribution for completing over 32 million transactions during 2020. Rivers became the third on the row with a contribution of 4.7 percent after completing 31 million transactions in 2024.
Other notable states are Oyo and Delta but Zamfara stays at the bottom210,069 transactions. Other countries at the bottom are Kebbi, Yobe, and others.
The gap between Lagos and Abuja is incredibly huge. What made that happen is the fact that users are more concentrated in Lagos. The northern parts of Nigeria are places where the use of PoS is still not seen as very important. For that reason, not many businesses in the north make use of PoS payment methods.
In Lagos, even trades selling low-ticket items like tomatoes and pepper are seen patronizing the use of PoS transactions, while in the northern parts of Nigeria, businesses that are more likely to make use of it are selling high-ticket items like clothes.
Another reason why Lagos also prospers in this regard is due to the large population of financially capable people.
