According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in its 2025 Annual Report, the total value of ATM transactions rose by 208.4 per cent year-on-year to ₦89.12 trillion in 2025 from ₦29.12 trillion recorded in 2024.
The apex bank attributed the significant growth to changing consumer preferences, increased adoption of digital payment channels, the rapid expansion of e-commerce activities and continued improvements in payment infrastructure across the country.
Beyond ATM transactions, the report showed that Nigeria's electronic payment ecosystem recorded steady growth during the review period.
The volume of e-payment transactions increased by 2.62 per cent, rising from 46.65 billion transactions in 2024 to 47.88 billion in 2025. Similarly, the total value of electronic payment transactions climbed by 26.07 per cent to ₦4,360.33 trillion, compared with ₦3,458.77 trillion recorded in the previous year.
Providing a breakdown of transaction volumes across various payment channels, the CBN said ATMs posted the strongest growth.
"A breakdown of the volume of transactions by channels showed that ATMs recorded the highest rise of 61.94 per cent to 1.66 billion.
"This was followed by 20.89 per cent rise in Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) to 669.55 million, and 19.78 per cent increase in PoS use to 15.66 billion.
"Decreases were, however, recorded in the volume of transactions through the mobile app, internet/web, and direct debits," the report stated.
The figures indicate that while digital payment channels continue to gain wider acceptance among consumers and businesses, ATMs, USSD services and Point-of-Sale (PoS) terminals remained key drivers of transaction growth during the year.
Despite the positive performance, the CBN cautioned that the country's payment ecosystem continues to face significant operational and security challenges.
According to the report, systemic risks arising from the dominance of a few Systemically Important Payment Service (SIPS) providers, increasing cyber threats, financial fraud and the activities of unlicensed operators remained major concerns throughout 2025.
The apex bank stressed the need for continued regulatory oversight, stronger cybersecurity measures and enhanced risk management frameworks to sustain confidence in Nigeria's rapidly evolving digital payments landscape.