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As Nigeria continues to make steady progress towards ensuring full banking transaction automation and with the value of e-payments rising to N360 billion in 2008, the awareness of non-cash payments in rising. 
This is even as the introduction of e-payments and e-banking has decreased the tendency of economic agents to keep cash, namely notes and coins issued by Central banks. 
Adeyinka Adeyemi, managing partner, Intermarc Consulting made these remarks at the presentation of the 2008 e-banking Customer Survey Report to journalist in Lagos recently. 
He noted that the Nigerian e-banking space has recorded significant advancements against all odds from 2007 to date as the international card community and Automated Teller Machine Industry Association (ATMIA) have adjudged the country the fastest growing ATM market in Africa. 
He observed: "In 2007, savings came tops with 99 percentage in the profile of banking services while ATM was second place with 96 percentage in the 2008 report debit cards (ATM) is tops with 92 percent, beating savings to second position at 89 percent. 
"On the platform of one of the major switching companies, the same period witnessed significant increase in the number of debit cards in circulation. The figure is put at 21.5 million cards as at 2008. The number of transactions during this period has grown to 51 million per month", Adeyemi said. 
He added: "7, 500 Point of Sales (PoS) terminals have been deployed across Nigeria, which is set to double in the next six months while about 6, 000 live ATM's have been installed so far. The adoption of mobile, SMS banking and EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) is also gaining momentum. 
According to the report, the overall customer rating based on awareness and usage indicates that United Bank for Africa (UBA) came tops with 28 percent, followed by First Bank of Nigeria (FBN). This trend is attributed to the e-banking footprints and spread of the respective banks. 
In the area of awareness and preference of e-banking services, the report further shows that e-services vary and the operability of these service channels determines the customer preference, which is in transaction and information provided on every transaction. 
This finding indicates that in the case of debit cards (ATM) the 24/7 factors of cash withdrawal anytime and fast transaction are the major attraction for patronage, with both toping the chart with 26 percent respectively. 
"For SMS banking and mobile banking the most important area of attraction is up to date information on transactions with 28 percent and 20 percent respectively, while fast transaction came next with 20 percent, Adeyemi said.
The picture presented by this research finding indicates that almost all the 97 percent of respondents that are aware of debit card (ATM) use the service. On the other hand, of the 67 percent of respondents that are aware of SMS banking, only 48 percent use it. In the case of MasterCard, even though 45 percent are aware, only a paltry 10 percent use the service. 
This survey involved over 2,200 individual, retail, corporate and public sector customers' and was designed to ensure that 100 percent of all banks in Nigeria with e-banking products and services were covered. 
Intermarc Consulting is an integrated consulting firm with focus on e-business and with particular emphasis on e-banking and e-payment intermediation.