After years of losing ground to Point-of-Sale (PoS) agents, Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) are making a comeback as transaction volumes rise while PoS volumes decline.
In the first quarter of 2026, Nigerians made 438.6 million ATM transactions, up 6.6% from the previous year, according to data released on Friday by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Transaction value grew 64.6% year-on-year to ₦26.3 trillion ($19.4 billion).
PoS transaction volumes fell 19.9% year-on-year to 2.92 billion in Q1 2026, while transaction value fell 16.4% to ₦59.3 trillion ($43.7 billion).
These changes could redraw Nigeria’s cash-access network. PoS agents spent years filling the gaps left by scarce and unreliable ATMs, becoming the preferred way for millions of Nigerians to get cash. But as ATM transactions rise and PoS volumes decline, banks are beginning to reclaim a role agents had steadily taken from them.
ATMs are making a comeback
Nigeria’s first ATM was installed in 1989 by Société Générale Bank, a French commercial bank, and through the early 2000s, commercial banks and independent ATM deployers accelerated growth. By 2021, there were about 22,600 ATMs across the country. But years of underinvestment, out-of-service machines, empty cash trays, and network problems had reduced the number of active ATMs to 16,714 by mid-2024.
As ATM availability declined, PoS terminals, led by fintechs like Moniepoint and OPay, increasingly filled the gap. In March 2025, Nigeria had 8.36 million registered PoS terminals, with 5.90 million active or deployed.
With an estimated population of 237 million, Nigeria has about one PoS terminal for every 28 people, compared with 13 ATMs per 100,000 adults in 2024, according to the World Bank.
Nigeria’s cash crisis in 2023, triggered by the CBN’s currency redesign and cash withdrawal limits, turned PoS agents into a crucial part of the country’s cash network. As Nigerians struggled to withdraw money from banks and ATMs, agents became the more accessible option for getting cash, transferring money and carrying out other basic financial transactions. At the height of the crisis, there were 2.32 million PoS terminals in the country.
But a new set of CBN rules is changing the operating environment for both channels.
In October 2025, the CBN issued new agent-banking guidelines that restricted agents to a single PoS terminal provider, limiting their ability to operate terminals from multiple providers. The regulator also restricted terminals to a 70-metre operating radius, reducing some of the mobility that had helped PoS agents spread across the country. It also capped the daily cumulative transaction limit for PoS agents at ₦1.2 million ($883.9).
While these measures do not necessarily make PoS terminals less useful, they constrain the flexibility that allowed the agent network to expand rapidly and serve as an alternative to traditional banking infrastructure.
At the same time, the CBN made ATMs more commercially viable and pushed banks to expand their networks. In March, the regulator mandated card issuers to deploy at least one ATM for every 7,500 payment cards issued over the next three years.
It also revised ATM withdrawal fees in February 2025, capping the fee at ₦500. It also introduced requirements around cash availability and giving banks 24 to 48 hours to resolve failed ATM transactions.
The Q1 figures do not mean Nigerians are abandoning PoS agents. PoS terminals handle far more than cash withdrawals, and their neighbourhood presence gives them an advantage that ATMs cannot easily replicate.
But the numbers suggest that one of the biggest advantages PoS agents gained during the cash crisis of 2023—being the easiest place to get cash—is narrowing as banks rebuild their ATM networks.
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