Cheques, the once dominant means of corporate settlements, are now facing digital extinction. The rise in digital payments is submerging cheques, which may never resurface as Nigeria’s payments landscape undergoes a quiet but decisive transformation.
Once a staple of salary payments and formal banking transactions, the cheque is steadily losing relevance as customers and businesses increasingly choose faster, easier and more secure digital alternatives.
According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s 2025 annual report, the value of cheque transactions fell by 49.78 per cent to N1,837.13 billion from N3,658.14 billion in 2024, while the volume of transactions declined by 57.79 per cent to 1.49 million from 3.53 million in the same period.
The sharp decline reflects not just changing consumer behaviour, but a broader reordering of Nigeria’s payment system around real-time transfers, mobile banking, internet banking and QR-enabled solutions.
For context, cheque usage in Nigeria has been on a downward trajectory for several years, however, the pace of decline has accelerated as digital channels become more deeply embedded in everyday banking.
From the rise of bank transfers, USSD payments, mobile apps and point-of-sale terminals, this has reduced the need for paper-based instruments that require physical handling, clearing delays and back-office processing.
For many users, the reason is simple: digital payments are more convenient. A transfer can be initiated instantly, confirmed immediately and tracked electronically. A cheque, by contrast, still depends on manual issuance, presentation, clearing and, in some cases, the risk of dishonour.
In a business environment where speed matters, the older instrument looks increasingly outdated. This shift is also being reinforced by the growth of the broader cashless economy. As more transactions migrate online, banks and payment firms are investing in infrastructure that prioritises real-time settlement. That naturally reduces the relative importance of cheques, especially in urban centres and among younger, digitally fluent customers.
It is safe to state that the scale of the decline is difficult to ignore. A nearly 50 per cent fall in the value of cheque transactions in one year and a drop of almost 58 per cent in volume point to a structural change rather than a temporary slump. It is not merely that people are writing fewer cheques; the instrument itself appears to be losing a place in the settlement hierarchy.
Analysing the graph in the apex bank’s report, this pattern is consistent with earlier evidence from the Nigerian payments system.
Cheque volumes had already been declining in previous years as electronic channels expanded. The use of cheques was relatively stable or rising slightly up to 2023, then weakened in 2024 and fell sharply in 2025.
This simply confirms that the pace of displacement is continuing. For banks, that means fewer cheque processing fees, lower clearing-house activity and less dependence on legacy payment workflows. However, the picture is not entirely negative. Lower cheque use is also a sign that more transactions are moving into formal, trackable digital channels. That can improve transparency, reduce delays and support greater efficiency in the movement of funds. In that sense, the decline of cheques is part of a wider modernisation of the financial system.
Banks are not treating the trend as terminal. Instead, many are adapting by building digital overlays around traditional payment expectations. The planned development of e-cheque functionality and QR code capabilities reflects an attempt to preserve the logic of cheque-based settlement while removing the friction of paper handling.
An e-cheque system could help corporates and other institutional users retain the familiarity of cheques while enjoying faster processing, reduced fraud risk and better integration with digital banking platforms. QR codes, meanwhile, offer a low-friction alternative for merchants and customers who want fast payment initiation without needing card infrastructure.
This matters because cheques still have a role in the corporate sector. Some businesses continue to prefer them for audit trails, authorisation controls and internal governance reasons. For these users, the issue is not only speed, but trust and documentation. The challenge for banks is to design payment products that preserve those features while eliminating the inefficiencies of paper-based instruments.