Digital payments in Nigeria have not displaced cash for some traders — Premium Times Nigeria
In Nigeria, the rapid spread of digital payments has not reached some rural women sellers and traders working with foreign suppliers. At a roadside fruit market in Lugbe, a suburb of Abuja, some agricultural produce sellers do not accept transfers and do not have bank accounts, Premium Times Nigeria reports.
Seller Fatima Abu told the outlet that she prefers cash payments due to fears of fraudulent transfers. She also explained that cash is needed to buy goods from farmers who do not accept digital payments. Customers of such sellers have to use the services of POS terminal operators to withdraw money: they are charged between 100 and 200 naira for withdrawing 5,000 naira.
Growth of electronic payments
According to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System, the volume of electronic payment transactions in the country amounted to about 1.07 quadrillion naira in 2024, compared with approximately 600 trillion naira a year earlier. In 2025, the figure rose to 1.7 quadrillion naira. The spread of cashless payments was facilitated by fintech companies and a cash shortage following the naira redesign in 2023.
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At the same time, traders at the Lugbe, Gosa, Dei-Dei and Soka markets cited weak mobile coverage, limited access to banking services, fraud risks and the specifics of cross-border trade as reasons for preferring cash. According to Nigeria's National Bureau of Statistics, fraud losses amounted to 52.26 billion naira in 2024 and 25.85 billion naira in 2025.
Barriers for women and cross-border trade
The World Bank estimated the gender gap in formal account ownership in Sub-Saharan African countries at 12 percentage points in 2024: 37% of women and 48% of men had an account. For women from rural communities, additional barriers may include the remoteness of bank branches, the lack of nearby channels for handling banking complaints, and KYC requirements, including the need for documents and photographs.
At the Dei-Dei market, wholesale tomato and livestock traders explained their preference for cash by their ties with suppliers from Niger, Cameroon and Benin. According to them, cash is easier to exchange for CFA francs and use for purchases outside Nigeria, while cross-border digital payments remain complicated.
