An estimated 2.89 billion transactions worth 4,769.01 trillion rials ($20.7 billion) were processed via Shaparak in the fifth month of current Iranian year (July-22- August 21) showing 82.25% hike in the value of transactions compared to same period last year.
The number of transactions grew 23.01% year-on-year, according to report published on the Shaparak website.
Shaparak is Iran's nationwide electronic payment network which offers services via internet, cell phone and POS devices.
The hike in electronic payments comes amid the outbreak of the coronavirus which authorities say has caused a major boom in electronic commerce in the country. The sector has grown by 236 percent since the infection began to spread in Iran in late February, data released by the ministry of industry, mine and trade shows.
The transactions in the the month under review, showed 0.95% rise in volume and 8.28% decline in value compared to the month before.
According to the report, the total number of receiving instruments rose slightly by 0.07% compared to a month before to reach 11.38 million.
The rise was attributed largely to internet payment gateways and mobile instruments, which respectively increased 5.78% and 1.42% in number compared to the month before. The number of POS devices experienced a 0.97% fall during the period.
POS devices dominate the market
In terms of market share, POS devices were at the top with 76.07%. Mobile instruments came next with 12.15% followed by internet payment gateways at 11.78%.
In terms of volume and value, transactions processed via each receiving instrument, POS devices, as usual, had the lion’s share, accounting for 89.54% and 79.57% of the total volume and value by processing 2.59 billion transactions worth 3,794.86 trillion rials ($16.5b) in the month.
Online gateways were next accounting for 6.35% while mobile instruments represented 4.10% of the total.
In terms of services offered by Shaparak, data showed that in the month under review, 86.89% of the transactions were for buying goods and services. Buying cellphone recharges and paying bills were in second place at 8.38% and 4.74% of the transactions were made for checking account balances.
As for penetration rate of the receiving instruments, there were 1,874 instruments per 10,000 adults (above 18 years old) during the month.
POS devices had the highest and internet instruments the lowest penetration rates by the end of the month to August 21, with 1,426 and 220 instruments per 10,000 adults, respectively.