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 same period a year earlier, according to data released on Friday by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Transaction value rose 64.6% year on year to ₦26.3 trillion ($19.4 billion).

By contrast, PoS transaction volumes fell 19.9% year on year to 2.92 billion in Q1 2026, while transaction value declined 16.4% to ₦59.3 trillion ($43.7 billion).

The shift could reshape Nigeria’s cash-access network. For years, PoS agents filled the gaps left by scarce and unreliable ATMs and became the preferred way for millions of Nigerians to withdraw cash. Now, with ATM activity rising and PoS volumes easing, banks are beginning to recover a role that agents had steadily taken from them, even though PoS terminals still handle a broader set of everyday payments beyond withdrawals.

ATMs are making a comeback

Nigeria’s first ATM was installed in 1989 by Société Générale Bank, a French commercial bank. Through the early 2000s, commercial banks and independent ATM deployers accelerated the rollout. By 2021, there were about 22,600 ATMs across the country. However, years of underinvestment, out-of-service machines, empty cash trays, and network problems reduced the number of active ATMs to 16,714 by mid-2024.

As ATM availability fell, PoS terminals led by fintechs such as 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 2023 cash crisis, triggered by the CBN’s currency redesign and cash withdrawal limits, made PoS agents 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 cash withdrawals, transfers, and other basic financial transactions. At the height of the crisis, there were 2.32 million PoS terminals in the country.

A new set of CBN rules is now changing the operating environment for both channels, with banks under more pressure to keep ATMs available and agents facing tighter operating constraints.

How much will it cost to get cash?

PoS cash-outs remain subject to CBN limits, and any amount above the permitted cash-out threshold cannot be completed as a single transaction.

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).

These measures do not necessarily make PoS terminals less useful, but they do constrain the flexibility that helped the agent network expand rapidly and function as an alternative to traditional banking infrastructure.

At the same time, the CBN has 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. The CBN also introduced requirements around cash availability and gave banks 24 to 48 hours to resolve failed ATM transactions.

The Q1 figures do not mean Nigerians are abandoning PoS agents. PoS terminals handle much more than cash withdrawals, and their neighbourhood presence gives them an advantage ATMs cannot easily replicate.

But the numbers suggest that one of the biggest advantages PoS agents gained during the 2023 cash crisis — being the easiest place to get cash — is narrowing as banks rebuild their ATM networks and the regulator tightens the rules around agent banking.