Nigeria’s push for a cashless lifestyle saw a lift last year as digital transactions, buoyed by covid-induced shift to digital life, increased significantly. Nigerians are increasingly embracing different digital payment channels instead of cash, in a gradual change of their cash-spending culture.

At the end of 2021, many of the digital payment channels, especially Point of Sale (PoS), NIP and mobile transactions, saw an increase in the number of users. PoS transactions rose to N6.43 trillion, a 36% improvement compared to N4.72 trillion recorded in 2020.

Transactions worth N271.95 trillion were executed in 2021 on the Nigeria Inter Bank Settlement System (NIBSS)’ Instant Payment (NIP) platform while transactions via mobile channels rose by 164%. In total, N286.45 trillion worth of transactions were carried out on the Point of Sale terminals, NIP and mobile channels.

Available data on NIBSS website showed that transaction volume on its instant payment platform rose 71.9% last year to N271.95 trillion compared to N158.21 trillion that was recorded on the platform in 2020.

Cash usage was notably low in December, even though Nigerians spend more during the month as it was a festive season. Most of the transactions carried out in December was done through digital channels accounting for the highest value of last year’s transactions. The data showed that as against 319.93 million transaction volume with a value of N25.93 trillion recorded in November, the use of NIBSS rose to 391.82 million transactions with a value of N30.26 trillion.

The platform saw a 24.9% increase in usage in December last year as the volume of transactions on the channel rose to 99.54 million compared to 84.91 million in November while the value of transactions rose to N699.75 billion as against N560.26 billion.

Last year, telecom companies temporarily halted USSD transactions over squabble with Nigerian banks for accrued transaction processing fees debt worth up to N50 billion. The development briefly disrupted the volume of mobile payments. However, the USSD-based mobile payments kicked off again after the telcos and banks resolved the issue.

Thus, adoption of several mobile channels increased significantly with the value of transactions consummated via the channel rose by 164.4% in 2021 to N8.06 trillion as against N3.05 trillion that was recorded in 2020. In December last year, the use of the mobile channel had seen a volume of 35.49 million transactions with a value of N1.19 trillion as against 31.28 million transactions with a value of N957.4 billion in November, a 25% improvement.

Cheques’ usage made a turn from its decline to record an increase in December last year with 390,677 cheques valued at N300.91 billion processed by NIBSS compared to 377,540 cheques valued at N281.82 billion that was processed in November. In December 2020, a total of 504,728 cheques valued at N325.3 billion were processed.

The increase in digital transactions in Nigeria last year was also supported by the fintech boom, which has seen more Nigerians adopting digital-based platforms that simplify bill payments and facilitates easier and faster local and cross-border financial transactions.

The digital lifestyle, which fueled the electronic-based transactions, is expected to be adopted more in 2022 across Nigeria, as many fintech startups focusing on the underbanked and financially underserved demographics spring up. Nigeria has about 40% population of financially disadvantaged people, presenting a huge market for mobile-based transactions.

Two years after the Lagos State government banned the operation of motorbike ride-hailing services (Okada), the operators are increasingly finding success in nearby Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State, Southwest Nigeria.

SafeBoda made the move in 2020, launching ride-hailing service in Ibadan, as many other motorbike operators affected by the Lagos ban pivoted to logistics to stay in business.

Joining the trend, Uber on Monday, announced it has launched UberMoto, a two-wheeler alternative and smart mobility option, in Ibadan.

Tope Akinwumi, Uber country manager, said the current product, UberMoto, will help residents navigate traffic quicker. Uber runs a range of services that include ride-hailing and food delivery, and has been exploring new markets for each of them.

UberMoto is an extension of the firm’s service to provide mobility solutions through trusted motorcycles (Okadas) in cities, and has been launched in other countries before now. It was piloted in Thailand in 2014, where it couldn’t scale due to government policies. But in 2018, UberMoto saw success after it was launched in Uganda, the home country of its rival, SafeBoda, and subsequently expanded to Kenya.

While there will be a huge competition from local operators of okadas in Ibadan market, UberMoto’s security features offer it an edge. UberMoto carries the same door-to-door safety features as any other Uber option such as Injury Protection, 24/7 support, including driver background checks and screenings. Akinwumi said UberMoto is affordable, easy to use and will help Ibadan residents move around the city faster.

“It makes sense for us to launch a product that will help passengers get to their destination quicker, which is where we can leverage our technology, and we are excited to introduce UberMoto to make this a reality.

“Launched as a low-cost alternative option, UberMoto’s minimum fare starts at NGN100 offering riders a 78 percent lower-cost alternative. The service is initially being launched in Ibadan, where Uber began operations in October 2021, with UberX,” he said.

Ibadan has a booming population of 3.6 million people who need mobility daily, offering a huge market for the ride-hailing players which includes Bolt, who launched operation there in 2019.

“As we recover, we know we need to continue to offer solutions that respond to consumers who are looking for smart mobility solutions while providing new revenue streams and earning opportunities for drivers,” Akinwumi said, explaining that the functions are the same on the Uber app with support and security features.

“UberMoto carries the same door-to-door safety features as any other Uber option such as Injury Protection, 24/7 support, including driver background checks and screenings.

“To request a trip on UberMoto, riders need to simply open the app and tap on UberMoto, they can then select cash or card as their payment option. Riders will also be able to see whether others have had a good experience with the UberMoto drivers and will be able to contact each other via the app if there is any confusion around pick-up details,” he said.

UberMoto has added to Uber’s increasing operations that are available in over 54 cities in Sub-Saharan Africa and in over 10 000 cities across 65 countries around the world.

A few years back, I reliably gathered that China would soon launch an artificial moon in the sky towards her quest to illuminate the country’s existing streetlights.

My blog that does not joke with technology-related matters did not hesitate to publish the news on arrival. An old-time friend of mine, Segun residing in Italy, who is an ardent follower of the blog, quickly put me on call the moment he got the mind-blowing information.

He was skeptical over China’s motive to actualize such a weird project. He was of the view that actualization of the goal was far-fetched, hence urged me to prove his perception wrong having recognized he was speaking with a tech expert who doesn’t play with research.

In response, I humbly asked him to jettison the mentality invariably worn by a typical Nigerian. I tried to let him realize that an average Nigerian believes that virtually everything is impossible as regards proposed science inventions. I therefore told him that though he was based in an advanced country, I was surprised such a mindset still lived in him. The rest is history as I ended up convincing the buddy.

As I earlier stated, the world was informed that the night skies might soon have a company as being reported. The Chinese scientists disclosed that they were making frantic efforts to launch an artificial satellite, precisely moon, into orbit by 2020. The report read that the scientists were hoping to hang the satellite above the city of Chengdu, the capital of China’s southwestern Sichuan province.

The moon, which would be essentially an illuminated satellite, would reportedly bear a reflective coating to cast sunlight back to the Earth where it will supplement streetlights at night. The scientists estimated that it could be eight times more luminous than the actual moon. It would equally orbit much closer to the Earth at about 500km (310 miles) away compared to the original moon’s 380,000km (236,000 miles).

According to the Chief of the Tian Fu New Area Science Society, Mr. Wu Chunfeng, “its expected brightness in the eyes of humans is around one-fifth of normal streetlights”. He however stated that it could assist first responders during blackouts and natural disasters.

On the economic value, Mr. Chunfeng – who said that if the project proves successful, it could be joined by three more additions to the night sky by 2022 – further disclosed that new moons could save the city of Chengdu about 7.2 billion Yuan ($173 million) annually in electricity costs.

In his clarification, “much more testing needs to be done to ensure the plan is viable and will not have a detrimental effect on the natural environment. We will only conduct our tests in an uninhabited desert, so our light beams will not interfere with any people or earth-based space observation equipment”.

As I applauded the Chinese over their dogged quest to supplement the Moon, I made it clear that they must be duly informed that such an anticipated scientific feat can only be actualized by involving all the needed research works as well as the testing techniques. They must, therefore, note that the country wasn’t the first to register such weird and amazing technological motive.

It would be recalled that in 1990, Russia experimented with using an orbital mirror to reflect sunlight on some of its sun-deprived northern cities. But the project was regrettably abandoned in 1999 after the mirror failed to unfold and was incinerated in the atmosphere.

Similarly, in January 2018, the American aerospace manufacturing firm, Rocket Lab launched an artificial star into space. But scientists criticized the satellite, which was branded “Humanity Star’, as the reflective mini-satellite was dubbed for contributing to artificial light pollution and cluttering in the Earth’s orbit.

Away from the testing processes, the environmental side-effects when successfully installed ought to equally be taken into thorough consideration with a view to averting any possible future health hazard among the supposed beneficiaries of the project. Thus, further holistic consultations must be carried out prior to the launching stage.

It’s now clear that the Chinese scientists are not resting but invariably busy trying to commercialize every aspect of their patents cum talents. So, it wouldn’t be an overstatement if one asserts that in no distant time, the Asian country is likely to emerge as the world power.

We must acknowledge that the point China is today took a very rigorous pathway. A lot of processes were duly involved before they got to this stage. It suffices to say that this is not rocket science as some of us may presume. Everything pertaining to science and technology requires adequate time, energy, research and resources.

I could recall the avenue was used by me to challenge the Nigerian government to endeavour to borrow a leaf from China. If we look inwards, we’ll definitely discover that there are tremendous talents embedded in various Nigerian citizens as well as patents belonging to several indigenous institutions in the country. But the major challenge these individuals and entities face remains the lack of an enabling environment to thrive.

Intriguingly, sometimes when a Nigerian indicates interest to bring a change in a certain area of the country’s technological plight, some bad eggs would rather contribute in killing the patent on arrival, perhaps owing to selfish mindedness or business interest. Most of the country’s importers would perceive such inborn invention as an enemy to their respective businesses.

This indicates that for Nigeria as a people to get it right regarding technology, governments at all levels must wear the required political will like clothing.

However, as we urge Nigeria to follow suit, the Chinese government ought to be reminded that the global community still awaits the intended weird tech-driven invention.