$640M BOOST TO NIGERIA'S GDP IN 5YEARS VIA ELECTRONIC PAYMENT

Regionally, Visa, a global payment technology company, said African countries experienced, on average a 0.05 per cent increase in GDP due to increased card penetration, stressing that many African countries are in the early stages of developing their financial systems with appropriate infrastructure to support electronic payments.

The study disclosed that African countries had the second lowest average number of jobs added per year from increased card usage (8,000), which is not surprising given the region’s low usage rates and developing financial infrastructure to facilitate electronic payments.

“Increased electronic payment usage added $640,000,000 to Nigeria’s GDP from 2011 to 2015.” Moody’s economists estimated that the equivalent to 2.6 million new jobs were created on average per year over the five-year period as a result of increased use of electronic payments.

The study found that increased use of electronic payment products, including credit, debit and prepaid cards, added $296 billion to GDP, while raising household consumption of goods and services by an average of 0.18 per cent per year in the 70 countries.

“Those countries which saw large increases in card usage also saw larger contributions to overall growth in their economies.” The report titled: “The Impact of Electronic Payments on Economic Growth”, also indicated that the electronic payments benefited governments and contributed to a more stable and open business environment.

At Visa we are partnering globally with governments, financial institutions, merchants and technology companies to develop innovative payment products and services that will accelerate electronic acceptance, grow commerce, and bring the benefits of card payments to more people everywhere”, he added.

The study observed that the corresponding figures for GDP were 0.11 per cent for emerging economies and 0.08 per cent for developed countries, and suggests that all markets, regardless of current card penetration rates, can benefit from increases in consumption due to increases in card usage.

According to it, increased card usage added 0.2 per cent to consumption in emerging markets, compared with 0.14 per cent in developed countries between 2011 and 2015. [guardian]