Nigeria’s securities traffic grows by 37.2 per cent – SWIFT

SWIFT – the world’s leading provider of secure financial messaging services – said today that financial messaging traffic growth in Nigeria has outperformed total messaging growth worldwide.

Year-to-date, SWIFT said total message traffic volumes increased by 17.8 per cent in Nigeria, compared to a 6.4 per cent growth for SWIFT worldwide. The growth in Nigeria was driven by a significant increase in securities traffic at 37.2 per cent, the company said.

According to SWIFT, the messaging growth in Nigeria is also significantly higher than the rest of Africa, which witnessed total message traffic volumes growth of 15.2 per cent this year.

SWIFT’s messaging platform connects more than 11,000 banking and securities organisations, and corporate customers in more than 200 countries and territories, enabling them to communicate securely and facilitate global and local financial flows.

SWIFT’s services fall under four key areas in the financial marketplace: Securities, Treasury and Derivatives, Trade Services and Payments and Cash Management.

The level of message traffic growth in Africa is significantly higher than in the overall Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region (8.5 per cent) and the Americas (5.7 per cent). In 2016, Africa’s message growth also outperformed SWIFT’s global growth, as the continent’s volumes rose by 12.8 per cent versus 5.4 per cent global growth.

“Africa remains a significant growth area for SWIFT. Traffic volumes are impressive despite challenging economic conditions,” said Denis Kruger, Head of Sub-Sahara Africa. “As African countries continue to diversify their economies to drive growth, SWIFT is working closely with the financial community to support them in developing the right solutions to meet their needs.”

SWIFT said message growth in Africa is underpinned by a significant increase in payments traffic, indicating many African countries continue to see relatively stable economic growth despite challenging global conditions, including the downturn in the commodities cycle.

In 2017, Africa’s payments traffic volumes grew by 16.9 per cent compared to 11.6 per cent for the same period last year. The growth was more pronounced in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which saw growth of 21.6 per cent. Africa’s payment traffic volume was ahead of other regions, with the Americas’ growing at 11.1 per  cent; EMEA, 9.2 per cent; and Asia Pacific, 9.6 per cent.

In the securities segment, SWIFT said Africa has also witnessed a strong rise in volumes as securities traffic grew by 14.6 per cent. Compound annual growth for Africa since 2012 has been 13 per cent year-on-year.

SWIFT said African transaction corridors – which illustrate payment or securities messages sent from one African country directly to another – are becoming more important. In the year-to-date, SWIFT said 55 per cent of the traffic sent from Africa stayed within the continent, up by 13 per cent from the same period last year.

“This trend was more pronounced in securities traffic, where 68 per cent of traffic sent from Africa is intra-regional,” SWIFT said.