Nigerians Return to ATMs as PoS Transactions Slide 20% in Q1 2026

PoS agents had spent years covering shortfalls left by scarce and unreliable ATMs, becoming a common route for millions of Nigerians to access cash. Fintech firms such as Moniepoint and OPay drove the expansion of PoS terminals during that period.

Nigeria's first ATM was deployed in 1989 by Société Générale Bank, a French commercial lender. The country had roughly 22,600 ATMs by 2021, but underinvestment, out-of-service machines, empty cash trays, and network issues cut the number of active machines to 16,714 by mid-2024. As of March 2025, Nigeria had 8.36 million registered PoS terminals.

ECB board member Piero Cipollone described a three-layer threat to banks from digital payments and positioned the digital euro as the structural response.