EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION ON THE NEXUS BETWEEN DIGITAL PAYMENT CHANNELS AND MACROECONOMIC STABILITY IN NIGERIA

This study investigated the influence of digital payment channels on macroeconomic stability in Nigeria between 2010 and 2024. Macroeconomic stability is represented by the inflation rate (INFLR), whereas Point of Sale (POS), Automated Teller Machine (ATM), mobile payments (MP), web/internet payments (WP), and money supply (MSUP) are the digital payment channels utilized in the study as explanatory variables. OLS regression technique is applied to determine the influence of the variables on macroeconomic stability in Nigeria between 2010 and 2024. It is evident that ATM, POS, and WP have negative and significant influences on the inflation rate and hence act as sources of macroeconomic stability in Nigeria. However, MP and MSUP have positive and significant influences on the inflation rate and therefore represent possible sources of inflation in Nigeria. This implies that increased transactions using the two variables can be linked to an increased inflation rate in Nigeria. This study recommends that efforts aimed at regulating the variables should be intensified to enhance macroeconomic stability in Nigeria.