News

Nigeria remains woefully short of ATMs

July 25, 2017

As part of its cashless initiative, the nation of Nigeria has estimated that the country needs 60,000 ATMs in order to serve the everyday cash needs of Nigerians while persuading them to keep the bulk of their money in the bank.

However, as of 2016 the nation had only 17,398 ATMs — less than one-third of the desired total, according to a report by the Nigerian publication Leadership.

Of these, nearly three-quarters (73 percent) are owned by 12 of the nation's commercial banks, which currently operate a total of 12,621 ATMs in the country.

According to Leadership, ATM totals by bank are:

• First Bank of Nigeria Holdings — 2,779
• United Bank for Africa — 1,750
• Access Bank — 1,564
• Zenith Bank PLC — 1,395
• Guaranty Trust Bank — 1,165
• Diamond Bank — 1,054
• Union Bank of Nigeria PLC —800
• Sterling Bank PLC — 776
• Fidelity Bank — 757
• First City Monument Bank — 770
• Unity Bank — 311
• Wema Bank — 270

An unidentified financial expert told Leadership that banks in Nigeria are reluctant to deploy additional ATMs in a market where deployment is expensive and the business case dubious, given strict limits on ATM fees.

In the first quarter of 2017, only 196 new units have been deployed according to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Scheme.

In 2016, Nigerians carried out 607 million transactions at the nation's ATMs with a total transaction value of 4.9 trillion naira ($15.6 billion), NIBSS said.