The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) saw a whopping rise of 650 percent in value at the semi-urban and rural stores in India, according to a report by fintech company PayNearby.
So far in 2022, Assisted financial transactions across semi-urban and rural retail counters in India grew 25 percent and 14 percent in value terms and volumes, respectively, as per the news report in IANS quoting the report by PayNearby.
The analysis was created using data from over a million different retail touchpoints across the nation. The report's conclusions are based on company data gathered throughout a comparison period that runs from January to October 2022 in comparison to the same time in 2021.
Growth in UPI transactions but cash withdrawal sees a decline
According to the report the demand for micro-ATMs and mPOS devices increased by 25 percent and adding to that there was sharp growth of over 200 percent in the cash collection business (including EMIs) with a monthly average of Rs 1400 crores, indicating demand for lending and other financing solutions, bouncing back to the pre-pandemic levels.
The average amount of cash withdrawn per transaction has, however, slightly decreased, falling from Rs 2,620 in 2021 to Rs 2,595 in 2022.
"Bharat is aspirational, and the increased off-take of green shoot services like assisted commerce, OTT subscription, micro-lending validates our commitment to make these services easily available at a store nearby," said Anand Kumar Bajaj, Founder, MD and CEO, PayNearby.
Online services see a boom
Online gaming, online education, OTT services and other subscription-based digital services have all experienced growth. Local retailers saw a 12 percent rise in value and a 10 percent increase in volume for their bill-paying services. As compared to 2021 mobile recharges increased by 18 percent.
This festive season, compared to the same period previous year, travel bookings increased by 8 percent for flights and 6 percent for trains.
Another report by
online payment solutions provider PayU released last month also mentioned that the festive season in 2022 saw Indians spend the most on revenge travel and entertainment. The year saw a 64 percent increase in expenditure and a 31 percent increase in the number of transactions compared to the festive season in 2021.
As per the PayNearby report, Microcredit for MSMEs also increased by 263 percent as compared to the corresponding period a year ago.
"We have serviced close to Rs 70,000 crore of digital services in the first 10 months of this calendar year and the steady growth of cash withdrawal business, together with the fast track adoption of some of these green shoot services .
(With inputs from IANS)
