Transactions in the Cape Verdean interbank network exceeded 117 million euros in January, adding 23 months of consecutive year-on-year rises, maintaining the recovery from historic lows after the Covid-19 pandemic, official data indicate.
According to data from a statistical report by the Bank of Cabo Verde (BCV) on the payment system in the country, the Cape Verdean interbank network, called vinti4 and involving namely automated teller machines (CA/ATM) and automatic payment terminals (TPA/POS), recorded 3,774,428 operations in January 2023, which handled more than 12,968 million escudos (117.3 million euros).
This is an increase of 22.4% in quantity and 28.7% in value compared to January 2022, when some restrictions were still in place due to the covid-19 pandemic. The interbank network had already grown 11.3% in quantity and 0.1% in value in March 2021 compared to 2020, the first year-on-year increase since the start of the pandemic, which has thus been repeated every month since, completing 23 months of consecutive growth.
The central bank report adds that last January the vinti4 network recorded 679,163 withdrawals from ATMs, worth over 4,125 million escudos (37.4 million euros), 28,907 mobile top-ups, worth 23.5 million escudos (213 thousand euros), and 24,745 transfers, totaling 1,079 million escudos (9.8 million euros), among other operations.
With the country recovering tourism demand, after two years of limitations imposed by the covid-19 pandemic and in a sector that guarantees 25% of the gross domestic product (GDP), the central bank report said that operations carried out with international cards continued with “positive year-on-year rates of change” in January.