How are payments made in Nigeria?
Nigeria is slowly adopting a cashless policy and internet banking is becoming more common. Nearly 20% of all transactions in Lagos are electronic and card-based, but this is much higher than in other areas. As part of the "Cashless Lagos" project, the number of Point of Sale machines has greatly increased. According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) data, there are 120,000 point of sale platforms for Nigeria’s over 170 million population. Out of these, only 40,000 are active and a meager 16% of Nigeria’s 44% banked population have debit cards. The cashless policy has now been expanded to 6 other States and the FCT. However, most payments are still executed by cheque or in cash. Most card payments are made with debit cards; credit cards are less common and, for security and prevention of fraud reasons, it is better not to use credit cards or ATMs outside of up-market hotels, indoor ATM plazas and restaurants in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.
The national currency, the naira (₦), had been relatively stable in recent years due to active control by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). However, it has recently been devalued and has also fallen in value against the US dollar. Nigeria remains the world's largest importer of US dollars. The CBN has now banned unauthorised imports of foreign currencies and all international money transfers are denominated in naira. The CBN has reintroduced the Retail Dutch Auction System for foreign currencies. At the time of writing, the largest naira denomination was the 1,000 naira note (about €4.50).